Picnic Story
by Umbrella.Confederation
Summary: Lily is dragged to a picnic by her bffs and the Marauders, which leads to not only a disastrous cooking contest, but a series of random, funny adventures. A tale of amusing antics and fun.. mild romance, mild language...
1. Chapter 1: A Saturday Idea

_Disclaimer: I promise, I don't own any of the recognizable characters, though I don't know what I wouldn't do to get them._

_Author's note: Hi! Thank you so much for reading, this is our first fanfiction . Please read and review, we are really excited to hear whatever you have to say ;) Thank you. Also, notice that this Alice is not the Alice that becomes Alice Longbottom and Neville's mom. Enjoy!_

Lily Evans briskly walked down the halls, her auburn hair whipped our behind her as she furiously searched for her tormentor.

"James Potter, the moment I find you, your life ends!" she growled.

"Really, Evans? And why might that be?" James stepped out of the shadows of the corridor and faced our agonized heroine.

"My bag is charmed, my clothes are neon pink, my shoes are 5 frickin inch heels, and my textbooks read 'I love James Potter!' "announced Lily in a dangerously low tone. James flinched inwardly, an angry Lily was definitely not someone he enjoyed facing.

"Oh... Yeah..." he rubbed his messy black hair in mild amusement.

"OH YEAH? THATS ALL YOU CAN SAY?" she shrieked at the top of her lungs. Several innocent first years jumped back in fright, being new to the majestic magic school Hogwarts they had very rarely seen a Lily/James argument. The second years and above simply glanced at the two and walked off as this was daily life for them, ever since first year James had been absolutely smitten with the lovely Lily and had made it his life goal to ask her out every day in first year, six times a week in second year, five times a week in third year, four out of seven days in fourth year, three times a week in fifth, twice in sixth year, and now in seventh year he had suddenly jumped to once just about every hour.

Almost magically Remus appeared behind Lily, "James are you bugging dear Lily again?"

"...No... Well... Maybe..."

"Heck yeah!" muttered Lily.

"Ah, Lily-doll, you mustn't be upset! And what happened to your outfit? It's rather… pink," chimed in a sweet voice, Alice waltzed in dreamily and grabbed Lily's hand in an attempt to start a waltz with her.

"Hullo Remus, James," she greeted, beaming she grabbed their hands as well to start a sort of circle where they skipped around in a circle to her tune.

"Um Alice, what exactly are we doing?" asked Lily cautiously, knowing Alice they were probably doing some sort of ritual to summon a crumple horned snorkack.

"Getting rid of Nargles, of course..." was the only response.

"...Ah, well I have to go now, I promised Lara to help her with the charms work."

"She already got help from Sirius." replied Alice vaguely.

"Oh..." Lily smirked, knowing that that probably wasn't _quite_ what Lara and Sirius were doing.

"Oh! I know, why don't we all go together to the lake? I heard the Great Squid was out today." cried Alice in delight.

"It is rather warm and that sounds like a lovely idea, Alice! Tell you what, Remus and I will go and grab food from the kitchens so we can have a picnic- today is Saturday, so no work to excuse you Lily- and you two can go grab Sirius and Lara!" reasoned James happily.

"Wait a minute, Potter!" exclaimed Lily sharply.

James winced, knowing what was coming, "Ye-es?"

"You, my dear, are not moving a single step until My outfit, bag, and books are restored!"

"But you look so much cuter this way!"

"Potter!"

"James, she looks horrible, change her back!" added Remus kindly.

Alice unexpectedly interrupted, "Well, his favorite color is hot pink, and his favorite person is Lily, so I suppose that for him this is a double package..."

An awkward silence followed.

"Wait a moment! I do not like pi-"James began to protest, when Lily interrupted, "Ahem, the reversing charm, Potter?"

"Woah, slow down. I have a condition!" smirked James triumphantly.

"What?"

"I wanna be able to call you Lily and you should call me James." he said with a flourish.

"I don't really care right now, just get the bloody stuff out of my way!"

"Oh goody!" with his deal set James removed the charm with a wink and marched off with a bemused Remus in tow.

"How fun. A picnic in the sun..." murmured Alice happily.

_A/N: Well, how was the first chapter? Yeah, it's sort of short, but definitely more to come! Thank you._


	2. Chapter 2: A Stash of Photos

_Disclaimer: As much as we wish it not so, we do not own the lovely characters that J. came up with. Nadia, Alice, Lara, and Death, however, belong to us, and must always obey us! Muahahahaha!_

_Authors Note: Sadly, no one reviewed. Review, you people! We command you! But, thanks for reading it, we really appreciate it. We love you!_

Chapter 2: A Stash of Photos

"Nadia!" Lily shrieked.

"Lily, what's up? You sound worried." Nadia said, propping herself up on her elbows from her bed. Her light brown hair cascaded gently over her shoulders.

"Curse Alice!"

"Lily?" Lara asked, coming in from the bathroom, where she was brushing her gold blonde hair in front of a mirror. "Oh my Merlin, you would not believe what Ian from Ravenclaw said to me tod-"

"Shut up, Lara," Nadia said. "What were you saying, Lily?" Taking in the look on Lily's face, she added, "Oh, no. Did someone die? Oh dear! Do I know him? Or was it a girl! No! I told you that was going to happen eventually. I bet it's the plague, we will all catch it and die!"

Lily rolled her eyes, annoyed. "No, Nadia, nothing like that. Everyone at Hogwarts is _fine. _Except, maybe, for me. Like I said earlier, curse Alice."

Lara gasped and her amber eyes widened in mock surprise, "Lily! That's not very nice! What did she do?"

"She invited Remus, Sirius, and _James _to go on a _picnic _by the lake, _today_." Lily hissed, narrowing her emerald eyes. "And she will get _very _annoyed if the three of us don't go. Now, Lara, I know that sounds like heaven to you, because you are with people you actually _like_, but personally, I can't _stand_ James and now I'm gonna _die_!"

Nadia giggled, but controlled herself when Lily glared at her, "Oh dear, I hope you don't really die, But don't worry, we will plan a nice funeral for you just like the time when we made one for Peter when he moved to Durmstrang in the third year!" Then she sat there thoughtfully, "Oh yeah, what's your favorite flower again?"

Lily scowled, "Roses. Black, _dead_, roses."

Nadia beamed happily, "Oh, I can easily arrange that, I get them all the time!"

"Anyhow, Lily, let's get you dressed. Hmm… Princess dress, or tutu?" mused Lara

Lily paused for a moment to consider her options, "Tutu. Definitely tutu."

"Right, your cute top with the bunny on it and the jean shorts it is. Green flats? They match your eyes."

"Got it. And Nadia?" inquired Lily.

"Already dressed and headed to the common room. Or maybe to meet Alice in the Great Hall, or rather to get sardines for Death."

"Ah, okay, and I'm assuming that she took Death with her?"

"Most likely. Heh, that girl is obsessed with her little black cat. I don't know if that's unhealthy for her already morbid mind."

"Fine, that's just fine. Merlin, I _hate _James."

"Yeah I know, I think that we established that ages ago. Don't bore me with the details, Lily-doll."

"Well, sorry for being such a… a… talkatively boring friend!"

"Oh good, you admit it. I was starting to worry about how to break it to you. Yeah, let's go now, they must be waiting."

They made it in good time to the Great Hall, and the boys were standing there with the food in a neat picnic basket while Alice was folding a picnic cloth, while singing some weird song about garden gnomes and nargles. It sounded an awful lot like a sort of Christmas carol, which was slightly disturbing. Sirius was standing next to James tossing his long (by Lily's standards) silky black hair, and winking at random sixth year girls. James stood ruffling his hair, laughing at the girls who were almost fainting-just from making eye contact with Sirius. Remus stood slightly apart helping Alice the best he could while humming along to her song.

"Oi! Lily, Lara, over here!" James called to Lily and Lara. As soon as the two girls reached the little group, Lara cheerfully whacked Sirius on the back of his head. Sirius winced and rubbed where he was hit, opened his mouth to yell at whoever had hit him, but then grinned largely when he saw Lara. "Hey, gorgeous," he said, waggling his eyebrows mischievously. Lara beamed at him. "Hey, there."

"Hello, Lily! Gonna have fun today, aren't we?" James exclaimed hopefully.

Lily turned and glared at him, "If you don't bother Lara and me, then yes, we will have a great time."

"Awww, but where's the fun in that?" pouted Sirius, which earned him another whack from Lara.

"I'm your girlfriend, I deserve respect. Hell, you should have a giant shrine built for me!"

"I'll build it eventually…"

"Sirius, did you not tell her about the secret photo stash that you hide in your room?" asked Alice, surprised. At this Sirius flushed and coughed loudly while the rest roared with laughter and Lara struck a princess pose.

"Thank you, thank you very much," Lara said, giggling.

Remus coughed. "Well, then, Sirius. I can't say that I knew that. But, seeing as we _are_ your closest friends, next time, do you mind telling us?"

"Next time?" asked James, incredulously.

Sirius glared at Alice, then Remus, then at James. "Shall we get along then, to the picnic?"

Alice nodded happily. "Time to go!"


	3. Chapter 3: Unnormalness

_Disclaimer: As stated previously, unfortunately we are not owners of the characters, the lovely author of Harry Potter is. However, we do own the crazy awesome characters that we made up, especially Death._

_Author's Note: Thank you for reading. Umbrella Confederation really appreciates the readers and we would adore you forevermore if you reviewed too! Enjoy a lot, and don't forget to review!_

"There! I want to eat right by the lake so we can play when the Great Squid come up!" Alice said, pointing at a lush patch of grass by the lake. "Yippee!"

Nadia and Remus ran up to help Alice prepare the picnic, and Sirius followed, probably to try and steal some food. Lily looked at James and Lara. "So…how long are we going to be staying here? I have to go practice for violin, and I need to write the transfiguration essay, and I need to plan Rachel's birthday party, the quidditch after party for next Wednesday, and I-"

"Lily, shut up!" Lara snapped. "Today is Saturday, you have all of tomorrow to do whatever junk that you have to do, and RIGHT NOW YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS (me, obviously) ORDERS YOU TO HAVE FUN UNTIL YOU BURST!"

James took a step back. "Love, she's right, you need to take breaks occasionally you know!"

Lily glared at James. "Pot—James, you know, I'm still mad at you for what you did earlier, and I would suggest you _shutting your mouth_ right this second before I shut it for you! Or better, hex your mouth off!"

"Wait a minute, Lily. Don't just snap so suddenly, it's super creepy. What did James do to you?" Lara asked, narrowing her eyes.

Lily growled. "He turned all my clothes neon pink, and he charmed my textbooks to read 'I love James Potter' and turned my beautiful black flats into five-inch-frikin heels, which are impossible to walk in!"

Lara grinned. "Nice, James. Lily looks great in pink, doesn't she? My, my, a hot pink Lily."

James nodded happily, "Amazing. Very sexy!"

Lily blushed, and turned away. "I'm right here, you know."

"I say this so you hear it, darling," James teased.

"Stop it! Ugh! I hate you guys!" Lily yelled while flushing pink, then stormed over to the others.

"She loves me," James said dreamily. "She just doesn't know it yet. I plan to change that. I plan to change that soon. Quite soon."

Lara smiled. "I know. Nadia and I are doing all that we can to get her to admit it. We're almost there."

James bowed playfully, "Thank you. Let's go, now."

"Prongsie!" Sirius yelled. "They're not giving me any food!"

James chucked. "Suck it up, Cupcake."

"You to be a good friend and stick up for me!"

"Sorry, love."

Sirius grinned, "Alice!" he called. "I'm hungry!"

"My my, I think I am too… How funny… But I can't give you any food. I'm afraid that all the extra food I packed was already eaten by you!"

Sirius growled. "Moony!"

"_What_, Padfoot?"

"Feeeeeeeeddddd meeeeeee! I'm gonna starve to death and it will be all you fault!"

"Like Alice said, you're going to have to wait."

Sirius grumbled something along the lines of "Everyone hates me…" and sat down.

"What's that about Death?" called out Nadia hurriedly. "Did Death wander off and steal food?"

"No, that was Sirius. Death has been a good little kitty; she is just sitting there and eating that sardine. I hate sardines, you know. They taste like fish," said Alice cheerfully.

Lara grabbed Sirius and dragged him over to help her set up the picnic. They laid down the red and white checked blanket on the grass and started to place the food, napkins, and plastic utensils on it. Then they walked to the nearest picnic table, which was about twenty feet away, to prepare the food. Alice and Remus were crouching by the water and peering intensely into the murky water looking for the giant squid. Nadia scrambled around anxiously, looking for her Death, who had been missing for some time. Lily plopped down alone on a corner of the blanket with a contented sigh; she had made up her mind to forget about all her work and just chill out for this small party. James came and lied down on his back next to her.

"Ah, this blanket is so boring and… well… normal!"

"Do you have something against normal?" asked Lily, smirking.

"Why, yes I do, and that's why I absolutely adore you," James answered, reaching out to smooth Lily's auburn hair.

Lily slapped his hand away. "So, you are saying that I am not normal? Is that it?"

"Well, no, you're not normal. Not at all," James said quietly, bring his hand down.

"What?" Lily glared at James and stood up to move away.

"Wait!" James rose and grabbed Lily's hand.

Lily froze. "What are you doing?" She tried to jerk her hand away, but James held tightly.

"In fact, you're the most un-normal girl I've ever seen. No one else has made my heart beat like this," James said, staring intently into Lily's green eyes.

"Oh…Well…Er, I—" Lily's face burned scarlet, somewhat similar to the color of her hair.

"Lily, listen. I think—" James started, but stopped abruptly as Lara came over.

"Hey guys! The pasta's ready! Let's go—" Lara paused and her eyes flickered to the two's hands.

Lily forced her hand out of James's and chuckled awkwardly. "Yeah, let's go eat! I can smell the pasta from here!" She hurried away, wiping her hand on her robes.

"Hey, uh, did I interrupt?" asked Lara to James as she watched Lily walk towards Sirius.

James glared at Lara. "Yeah," he growled, and ran after Lily desperately.


	4. Chapter 4: Suspicious

_Disclaimer: As sad as it may be, the rumors going around are true. We don't own Lily, James, Remus, Sirius, or any of the other awesome characters that Rowling created._

_Authors' note: Yeah, thank you guys so much for all the hits, but we want reviews! This is our first ever fanfiction, and we want to know any ways to improve. Please, anything is welcome—questions, comments, concerns, all are fine. Thanks again! _

For Lily and James, lunch was…awkward…to say the least. James kept trying to get Lily to talk to him, and Lily was pointedly ignoring him.

"Yum, who made this pasta? It's delicious!" Sirius exclaimed, wiping his mouth on a napkin.

Nadia smiled and pet Death. "I did! Do you really like it?"

Sirius nodded enthusiastically. "It's amazing!" he said, flashing one of his brilliant smiles.

"It is super good, Nadia. I always knew you were a great cook, but this is spectacular!" Lily said, helping herself to another share of pasta.

"Thanks, thanks. It might be that Death accidentally dropped a sardine in it, but I'm really not sure," Nadia murmured thoughtfully.

Lily shuddered. "You're joking, right?" she asked in disbelief, dropping her fork. Nadia shrugged.

Alice gagged and started coughing. "Sar..dine? There's sardine in this?" She pushed her plate away disgustedly.

Nadia giggled. "Merlin, you guys are gullible! I'm joking, of course!"

"That's a relief, right Lily? I know you don't like fish…" James said, determinedly looking at Lily.

Lily looked away. "Yeah," she mumbled and scooted closer to Lara, farther from James. "So, Lara, how's the weather been lately? Hasn't it been grand?"

Everyone stared at her.

"Lily, the last couple weeks have been rainy! This is the first day it's been even remotely warm…" Lara said, a worried expression crossing her forehead. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Actually, I'm feeling a bit flushed…I think I should go," Lily said.

James jumped to his feet. "Are you okay, Lily-doll? Are you running a fever? A headache? A stomachache? Do you wanna lie down? Should I carry you to the hospital wing?"

"No!" Lily said, a bit too loudly. "Uh, I'm fine. I think I need some rest, that's all," she murmured quieter.

Nadia looked at Lily. "Can you come over with me for a sec?" she asked with a strange look on her face.

"Um…sure…?" Lily said, confused. She got up and followed Nadia to the farthest park bench in sight.

"Lily, what's going on with you?" Nadia asked in a voice barely above a whisper, although the two were far from the others.

"Wha-What do you mean?"

"Lily, I saw you and James talking over there, while I was looking for Death. You were holding hands. Then, I saw Lara come over to you two, and when you came back you were blushing, and wouldn't look at James. What were you two talking about?"

Lily began blushing profusely. "Oh, that! Well, everyone knows how he likes me, and he was just kinda…telling me that." She forced a laugh.

"Oh, if that's all…tell me, why are you blushing so much?"

"Blushing? I'm not blushing, Are you blushing? No, it's just really hot out today and…" Lily mumbled, quieting down at the skeptical look on Nadia's face. "He…kinda…ya…nothing really happened…"

Nadia raised her eyebrow. _Oh, Merlin, it was so obvious that she is lying._ "Oh, okay. Well, just checking. So, how was the pasta?"

"It was fine," Lily said warily, not sure that Nadia had really dropped the topic of James.

"Oh, good. I was worried that I added too much oregano."

Lily smiled. "No, no, it was fine."

"Good. Let's go, then. The others are probably waiting." Nadia turned away, then faced Lily again. "Are you_ sure_ nothing happened?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, nothing! Nothing. At. All!" Lily said, feeling her cheeks burning. She turned on her heels and ran back to the others, her hair flying back in the wind.

Nadia stared at her fleeing friend. "It is soooo apparent you're lying…" she said to no one in particular, rolling her eyes.

"So, what'd she ask?" asked Lara as Lily came over.

"What? Um, er, she, uh, asked me…" Lily paused, searching through her mind for an answer. "Uh…" Lily looked down and blurted out, "Shoes!"

"She asked you _shoes?_" asked Remus, tilting his head confusedly.

"Yeah!" Lily forced a smile, then realized that her answer didn't make any sense at all. "Uh, well, she—"

Nadia appeared at Lily's side. "Oh, I asked her what type of shoes go best with me. Flats or heels," she said coolly. She directed a piercing look to Lily that read clearly, _Merlin, you suck at lying!_

"You took her just about a hundred meters away from me to ask her about _shoes_?" James asked, standing up.

"Yeah, why couldn't you have asked her here, especially if you can announce the question right in front of us?" added Sirius suspiciously.

"Well, what matters is the answer, not the question. Duh!" Nadia rolled her eyes and quickly changed the topic. "So, how about a game of hide-and-seek?"


	5. Chapter 5: A Wet Experience

_Disclaimer: No, we do not own any of the characters except for the ones we've created. Can you guess which ones they are? Well, if you said Nadia, Lara, Alice, and Death, you are so correct. Awesome! And you win…absolutely nothing!_

_Authors' Note: Yes, we are multiple authors, and we all hope you enjoy our story! We are putting in our best effort! So, please, please, review! It would mean the world to us! Thank you so much, and we love you! And thanks so much to our first reviewer! Thank you so, so much! Is there no way to express how delighted we are?_

"Now remember, everyone, no magic! Now, twenty, nineteen, eighteen…" Lara and Sirius counted, their eyes tightly closed.

Lily hurriedly slid behind an old, large tree.

Nadia frantically ran around, picking up Death, and hid herself under a low bench. Remus, following her example, ducked under a nearby bench, with some difficulty, as he was not as small as Nadia was.

Alice peered around, then plopped down onto the spot, and rolled up into a ball.

"Six, five, four…" Lara and Sirius continued.

James searched desperately for a hiding spot, and finally chose to get behind a tree. He slid behind the thick trunk, out of the seekers' views, and…found himself face-to-face with none other than Lily Evans.

"You!" Lily said in a hoarse whisper. "Get out!" She tried force James out from her hiding place, but James didn't move.

" Geez, Lily! I didn't know you were here either! And the lake's behind me! Do you want me to drown?"

Lily quieted, partly because she heard Lara and Sirius shouting in the background, "Ready or not, here we come!", and partly because, as much as she hated James, she didn't want him to drown.

Sirius looked around, his gaze falling on Alice. "What the-?" he said as he approached her. "Alice? Is that you?"

Alice froze for a moment, but then said, "No. I am a rock."

Sirius stared at her. "Ah. My apologies…_rock_…"

Meanwhile, Lara searched for her friends, wandering around until she spotted Remus. Lara skipped toward him. "Hey, Remus. I found you," she said sweetly.

Remus groaned. "Darn. I'll come out." He struggled under the bench for a few moments, until he looked up at Lara pleadingly. "Hey, could you…help me get out, please?"

Lara grinned, a mischievous smile playing on her lips. "On one condition. You have to buy me a big box of chocolate frogs from Hogsmeade the next time you go. I love chocolate!"

Remus groaned yet another time, but finally agreed, "Fine!"

Lara laughed happily. "Okay then, it's a deal!" She skipped away.

"Hey, wait! Wait! What about getting me out of here? Wait! HEY!"

"Huh?" Lara turned around, then smiled brightly. "Oh, right! I totally forgot that tiny detail of our deal. Sorry, I was thinking about the chocolate. Did I mention that I love chocolate?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "Yeah, only about two million times since we met. Now, get me out of here!"

Lara beamed, and with a flick of her wand, the bench was off of Remus.

"Thanks," Remus said, dusting himself off.

"No prob. Don't forget the chocolate!" Lara reminded him before prancing off to look for more people.

"Nadia, where are you?" called Sirius.

"You really think that she will answer?" scoffed Lara.

"Well, no, but the cat might!" Sirius called once again, but this time, "Death! Death! Where are you?"

From underneath another bench came a small _meow. _

"Hah!" yelled Sirius triumphantly, and sauntered over to the bench. "Nadia! I found you!"

Nadia slipped out nimbly from under the bench and glared at Sirius. "Cheater! Curse you! I hate you!"

"Woah, woah, girl! It's a game!" Sirius said, chuckling.

Nadia growled menacingly, and looked pointedly at Death. Almost immediately, the black cat sprang up at Sirius. Only by pure luck, Sirius managed to avoid the cat's sharp claws. He turned and scrambled frantically away, the cat following closely behind.

Meanwhile, a giggling Lara had spotted Lily's auburn hair from behind the large oak. "There you are!" she murmured to herself, then sneaked closer. As she approached Lily, Lara saw that _she was with James! _Smiling, Lara tiptoed up to her friend, who was facing the other way, at James, and pushed her gently into his arms.

James, taken by surprise, took a startled step back. It was at that moment that Sirius decided to run by that very tree, and of course, Death was almost at his feet.

James's foot landed on Death's tail, and it yelped in annoyance and pain. James, losing his balance as the cat jerked its tail away, toppled into the lake with a great splash, Lily in his arms and Death tumbling in along with him.

Lily shrieked and fumbled wildly.

James scowled and gasped for air. Finally getting his nose overwater, he discovered with much irritation that Death was perched quite calm and dry on his head.

"Death!" yelled Nadia, frantically sprinting to the edge of the lake.

"Ugh! Get off!" Grabbing Death with his wet hands, James swam ashore with some difficulty as to not kill the cat, threw Death onto the grass, and started to scramble out himself.

"James!" yelled Lara, stopping Remus from diving in to rescue Lily, "Lily! She's still there!"

Finally remembering that his crush was still in the water, he started to swim back to the middle of the lake, scanning around for Lily. Sighting her red head bobbing up and down, he made his way to her.

"Let me help you. I know you can't swim," he said, paddling in place, and reached out to hold her.

Lily, with some difficulty, squirmed away from James. "Excuse me, James Potter, but I am NOT a damsel in distress that needs rescue! Get out of my way!" With that, she doggy-paddled toward the shore, still managing to keep her dignified air.

"Darn, she looks so gorgeous even when she's drenched and doggy-paddling!" James said to himself, swimming in place and lost in thought.

Alice interrupted his thoughts. "Hey! I see the giant squid's leg! It's gonna get you!" she yelled, jumping up and down.

"Alice, that's just some water-plant. Calm down," reassured Sirius.

James swam ashore, and Remus met him with a fluffy, pink towel that he had conjured up. Lily stood shivering next to Lara, wrapped in a white towel, her hair dripping. James shook his head like a dog, spraying water everywhere.

"Hey, guys?" said Alice, dreamily wiping droplets of water off her arm, "I think we should go now. Otherwise the crumple-horned snorkacks are going to get us!"

Remus, laughing at Alice's remark, added, "Well, I'm not sure about the crumple-horned whatevers, but we do have to get these two inside. Let's go now."


	6. Chapter 6:  The Everloving Saviors

_Disclaimer: Think about the characters that you know from the Harry Potter books. You know Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, but you also know James Potter, Lily Evans, Sirius Black, and many others. We don't own any of those characters. All of the ones that Rowling came up with belong to her- and no one else. Especially not us. We promise._

_Authors' Note: Well...Not much to report...We haven't been getting as many reviews as we'd hoped, but we'll give you guys more time. We all hope you're enjoying the story, and don't forget to review! So, we had this cool idea that you guys could help us continue the story, so if your ideas aren't too obscene or vulgar, we will definitely include them in our story. If you would like, send in letters to the characters or to the authors and we will include them in the story, however it might take a few chapters to accumulate letters or ideas, so write write write. Ideas are good too!;D So please send in letters to the characters or authors! Much obliged. :) We're deeply thankful to you guys for helping us continue with the hope that people like our styles mushed together!_

The Room of Requirements was magically transformed into a cozy, warm room. A glowing fire was blazing on one side, and Lily and James sat on beanbags next to the fireplace, drying themselves.

Lily glared at Lara. Her teeth were still audibly chattering, "L-Lara. Why the h-hell did you p-push m-me into P-Potter?"

Lara smiled sheepishly, "Do you really want to know the answer to that? Because...I don't think you would murder me if I told you the real reason."

Lily threw Lara a poisonous look. "I h-hate you," she said, very matter-of-factly.

Next Lily glared at Nadia. "Nadia! If y-you can't control that cat of y-yours, I w-will have to k-ill both you a-and the cat."

Nadia made puppy eyes at Lily. "Really, Lily? I wasn't aware that you could kill death..."

Lily nodded and narrowed her eyes. "I don't care, Nadia!" She stared at Death, who was purring innocently by Nadia. "I'll get you and your bloody sardines someday!" she muttered.

"Calm down, Lily! Anger is bad for you," said James, smiling and moving Lily's beanbag a bit closer to the fire place,also a bit closer to him. "Here, get warm."

Maybe it was the fact that she had just fallen into the lake, or perhaps it was the genuine concern in James' voice, but Lily didn't get upset, instead she gladly moved towards the fire and accepted a cup of tea from Remus.

"Hey, Lara, Sirius, can you two run and grab some dry clothes for the two?" asked Remus.

"Sure!" said Sirius happily. "I'll go pick out Lily's clothes! You go get Prongs.'"

Lara glared pointedly at Sirius, "Haha. Not funny. Come on, let's go, I've got to get my Lily-doll all warm and dry now."

Sirius mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "I've always wanted to see the interior of a girl's knicker drawer," when Lara rolled her eyes and dragged him out of the Room of Requirement.

Sirius and Lara walked side-by-side to the Gryffindor tower.

"Hey, go get James's clothes," ordered Lara sharply.

"Okay, wait right here!" Sirius said, standing there until she promised not to move.

Sirius ascended the stairs empty-handed, and descended the stairs with clothes in his arms for James in the very same minute. He was crazy fast, Lara thought, smiling.

"Good girl!" said Sirius, patting Lara on her back. "Now, lets go get Lily-flower's clothes. Oh Merlin, I can't wait to see her closet!" He grinned mischievously.

Lara smirked and said, "Eh-hem. I'm sure you mean I'm going to get her clothes, because you are a boy, and can't get up the girls' dorm."

"Oh, right." Sirius looked down, pretending to be crestfallen. Lara couldn't see the smile playing at his lips.

Lara chuckled and pecked him on the cheek, "You stay right here." Then she ran up the stairs.

The second she was gone, Sirius took out his wand and froze the stairs, mumbling Congelo. He then ran up the stairs with no problem. He walked up to a swinging door to check if Lara was in there. Sure enough, Lara was peering through Lily's closet. Sirius ran over to the bed farthest from the door, and lay down on it. "Hey, there, Love," he said, in a mysterious voice.

Lara twirled around as he spoke, "Holy sh...ittake mushrooms- Hey! What-how-But, you're a boy! How did you get in here?" she yelled.

Sirius laughed. "I pay attention in Charms," he said, grinning.

"Like hell you do. Don't scare me like that. You used the freezing charm, didn't you?" Lara gasped as Sirius nodded happily.

"Bingo! And I thought you were trying to fix your swearing habit? The mushroom was a good save though," he said, snapping his fingers. "Now, time to get Lily's stuff." He leaped off the bed and walked to the closet.

"Hey! This is Lily's private stuff! Don't go digging through her stuff!"

"You're going through it!" Sirius whined.

"Well-" Lara stammered, "I'm her best friend! And not a perverted male!"

"Fine, then." Sirius grumpily made his way back to the bed, "Just for you, I'll stop." With that he walked back over to Lara and wrapped his arms around her. "Only for you."

Lara stiffened and there was a moment of awkward silence before she shoved him onto the hard floor. Sirius moaned. "Oh, come on!"

"Don't do that so unexpectedly!" Lara said through gritted teeth.

Sirius asked, "Never? Not ever? Are you sure about that?"

Lara reddened and ignored him, and Sirius laughed. "I see you can't answer."

"Shut up!"

Sirius snickered and quietly took out his wand, murmuring Muffliato at his legs. Then he could stomp around the room, and Lara wouldn't even know it if he had shifted positions from her side.

Sirius, smiling an evil grin, then proceeded to walk over to a large set of drawers labeled "Lily" in green cursive. He smiled, and once again he murmured Muffilato but this time, at the five drawers. He then bent over a bit and opened the first drawer. Nothing but shirts in there. He opened the second drawer. In there were pants.

"Getting closer.." he mumbled, grinning.

In the next drawer were skirts. In the one under were socks. Sirius smiled to himself. The last drawer had what he'd been looking for.

With a huge grin, Sirius reached out to open the drawer. In anticipation, he let out an audible sigh.

Upon hearing a sigh, Lara glanced at the bed to see what Sirius was doing. When she couldn't see him on the bed, she turned and saw him sitting on the floor, contently reaching out to Lily's bottom drawer. Lara almost shrieked.

"Sirius! You freakin pervert!" she yelled, running towards him and shoving him away from the drawer with a powerful kick. "You idiot! Do you even know what that holds?"

Sirius, rubbing his knee, looked up and smirked. "Well..."

"Sirius, you, you-" Lara boiled up in anger and her face turned into a shade of crimson.

"Handsome gentleman? Gorgeous boy? Awesome-"

"You revolting, utterly despicable pervert!"

"That hurt!" Sirius said, pouting.

"If you really wanted to look at knickers, you could've at least looked though my drawer! Lily will kill you if she knows about this!" she shrieked.

"Really? Awesome!" He rushed to another set of drawers near by marked "Lara."

Lara tackled Sirius and socked him in the face. "Let's go now!" she growled, storming out of the room.

"Hey, wait!" Sirius hurriedly followed, desperately trying to stop his nosebleed.

By the time Sirius caught sight of Lara again, she was already below the staircase, impatiently waiting for him.

"Geez, you're fast!" he called, and set a foot onto the staircase, which, much to his surprise, transformed into a long, slippery slide.

He half-rolled, half-slid down the slide and face-planted into the ground at Lara's feet. "Curse you, stupid stairs." he mumbled. Lara was trying very hard not to laugh. Needless to say, she was not succeeding.

"Yes!" Lara yelled, throwing a fist in the air. "Let's go now, my Lily-doll's cold. Do you still have James's clothes?"

Sirius nodded and held up a wrinkled pair of pants and a faded t-shirt.

"C'mon." Lara led Sirius through to hallway and finally reached the Room of Requirement.

Sirius grabbed Lara's hand and threw the door open, practically flying through the door, and yelled, "We're here! Your ever loving saviors!"


	7. Chapter 7: Cook?

_Disclaimer: We own everything! Mwuahahahaha... No... sadly, that's a terrible lie... Rowling owns everything and everyone except for our own created characters (Alice, Nadia, Lara, Death) Also, we don't own Ludo's song Love Me Dead (fabulous, btw; you really should listen to it!)_

_Authors' notes: Hihi! Thank you dearest, valued readers for reading our delightfully amusing and whatever you want to call it story! And to our only reviewer, we kinda sorta forgot to answer you question. Yeah, Alice is a cousin of the Lovegoods, a very distant cousin of Sirius- that's how she knew about his stash of photos in his room. Thank you for your review, we had a field day over it ^.^ We need you awesome people to review and give us inspiration! Lots of Love, UmbrellaConfederation /J| (look, its an umbrella! ;D )_

When Lara and Sirius entered the room they found Nadia and Death curled up together on a beanbag in a dark corner of the fire lit room, Nadia was quietly cooing to her beloved cat and her cat responded by nuzzling her chin and purring softly. It would be an adorable sight if Lara and Sirius didn't know how dangerous the morbid couple was. Remus was lying on a plush blanket on the ground playing with a chain with a small charm on it, there was another blanket near his in which Alice was sitting and explaining the magical properties of her chain (the one that Remus was holding). Remus, however, soon lost interest in the chain and simply lay gazing at Alice and occasionally nodding when required.  
James and Lily were now pretty much dry from sitting by the fire, and were lightly dozing in their seats. With a slight sigh Lily fell sideways into James, her head resting on James' lap. James' eyes flickered open, peered warmly yet dazedly at Lily, then closed again.

"Awwww" cooed Lara softly. "How sweet!"

"Wow... Never thought I'd get to see-" Sirius started loudly, but Lara jabbed him in the ribs. As he writhed in pain silently, she snatched the clothes from him.

"They can dress when they awaken," she whispered, seating herself next to Nadia.

"Dude, Sirius has the dirtiest mind out of any one in Hogwarts," Lara started softly. Sirius, as he heard the words, hurriedly walked away and started twiddling with his wand in the corner, not wanting to be present to hear himself degraded.

Nadia gently pet Death as she murmured, "What happened?"

"He tried to look through Lily's...Lily's..." Lara looked away.

"Oh..."

"Yeah..."

"S'ok, Death will take care of this,"said Nadia confidently as she set her cat off to the general direction of Sirius.

"Um, Nadia?" called Sirius from the other side of the room.

"Ye-es?"

"Can you please get the cat away?"

"Don't worry, Sirius. Death just wants to kill you. Quite literally. If I find your dead body near a grim reaper I won't be surprised. In fact, we could all just suddenly die right now."

Sirius nodded. "Right. Er, just...Asking..." Nadia smiled with much satisfaction.

…

Streaks of sunlight shone in through a curtained window. James woke up blearily with a vague memory of Lily in his mind, and closed his eyes again, hoping to keep the memory as long as possible.

James' thoughts were momentarily interrupted by noise. As he concentrated on the sounds, he realized it was music. A male voice sang:

_Love me cancerously,_

_Like a salt sore stuck in the sea,_

_High maintenance means your a gluttonous queen_

_Narcissistic and mean_

Hm, getting Lily's love was like that... painful, she somehow made him ache a lot, heart, soul, and places where she hexed him.

_Kill me romantically_

_Fill my soul with vomit then ask me for a piece of gum_

_Bitter and dumb, your my sugar plum_

Yeah, if he had to die, it would be by Lily's hand alone. Dying romantically... hmm, didn't sound to bad. Now she wasn't cruel enough to... eww that was just gross...

S_he moved through moonbeams slowly,_

_She knows just how to hold me,_

_and when her edges soften, _

_her body is my coffin,_

_I know she drains me slowly,_

_She wears me down to bones in bed, _

_must be that sign on my head,_

_It says, oooh, love me dead!_

That sounded like his Lily, she was the only girl who could captivate him yet scare and exhaust him so much. Only Lily could do what she did to him. No one else. Yeah, if he had to die, it would have to be from Lily-Love overdose. The only and best way to die.

Slowly, James opened his eyes feeling something licking his neck. It felt kind of creepy and for some reason he felt like someone had just passed over his grave. Then a thrill went to him once he remembered that Lily had fallen asleep on his lap last night. He opened his eyes to see big yellow brown ones. And a small furry black body. He was quite literally looking into the eyes of... Death.

"AAAAAHHHHHH!" yelling in shock, James fell of his seat as Death stopped trying to stuff sardines into his breast pocket. That explained the weird wet feeling.

He looked around in fright, only to see Lily, Nadia, Lara, and Alice laughing together while making what smelled like breakfast and listening to the radio... that explained the music. Groaning he sat up and glared at the cat and looked over at his friends who were groggily getting up and looking around.

"Someone hear a parrot?" muttered Remus, sounding confused as he walked out of the kitchenette on the far side of the room. He wore a pink apron and held a spatula.

"Nah, mate, that couldn't have been anything less than a banshee," responded Sirius as he rolled over to grab his wand off the floor next to him.

"Ah, therefore it must have been our dearest James!" concluded Remus, satisfied.

"Shut up!" groaned our poor distressed hero.

"Parrot? Banshee? What's this all about?" inquired Lily, she found this situation quite amusing.

"Noth-"

"We discovered very recently that James can screech like a parrot and worse than a banshee," smirked a triumphant Sirius.

"Padfo-" James started.

"He can also cook like no one can." Sirius continued, smirking.

"Mooooonnnnyyy! Help me!" cried the pitiful voice.

"Sorry James.. On your own there," Remus said, walking back into the kitchenette with Alice right behind him.

Lily had been watching with mild interest and now decided to join in, "Wait, your saying that that egotistical prat can cook? I thought..."

"Thought the house elves or mummy did it all?" finished Sirius, watching Lily. "Some purebloods just aren't as arrogant as they can seem. I appreciate that as should you. Unfortunately, you were at the end of one of the worse bigoted twats."

Lily looked down slowly, he was referring to to incident with Snape. That had just added to her resentment of James but at the same time she appreciated his staying mostly out of that aspect of her life except to curse Snape and his sick twisted death eaters of friends every so often.

"Yeah... I... yeah..." finished Lily pathetically, but then looked up defiantly. "Those curses are still cruel! James is so mean when he does that!"

"Tell you what, lets have a bet!" exclaimed Remus slyly changing the subject.

"A bet? What sort of bet?" mused Alice with interest.

"Cooking. Lily against James. Lara, Sirius, Nadia, you, and I can be the judges. If Lily wins, then we guys will be the girls' slaves for a week. That," Remus said his lips broadening into a grin,

"Lily can order James to stop cursing Severus and his gang... or whatever she wants him to do. Lara... well, Sirius is already your slave, but whatever. Alice and Nadia, I will be your slave."

"And if I lose?"asked Lily in suspicion.

"Then vice versa. You will be James' slave...wonder what he'll make you do...and Lara can be Sirius' slave for a change...and I will have two slaves! Nadia and Alice!" Remus laughed manically.

"Mate, the way you say that makes me fear for your sanity," said Sirius. "But I am all for that bet."

Alice started to chuckle lightly, "I can't wait to make you collect the knarls for me from the forest and the lake..."

"Um Alice? I didn't win yet..." interrupted Lily. "Nor did I accept yet."

"I accept on behalf of Lily," stated Lara firmly. There was no way that she would pass on a chance to get Lily and James to work together.

"Wai-"

"I accept too!" joined Nadia.

"But-"

Mrrow!" purred Death as if she knew what was going on.

"Alright, it's decided then!" beamed Sirius. "James, be sure to win, yeah?"

"Wait!" cried James. "What is going on? What is happening?"

"You and Lily are going to be competing against each other...cooking! If you win, Lily gets to be your slave," Remus explained.

"Yes, I do have ears, you know. And I don't get a say in this?" demanded James.

"No," said Remus and Sirius simultaneously.

"But, I suck at-" Lily started, but Nadia interrupted.

"Girl, you can suck all you want, just be better than James."

"Besides, he's a guy! If he can cook, you can! And I bet it'll be way better. I mean, come on, it's you!" Lara reassured.

"Heh, that's what you think!" snorted Sirius. "You have never tasted James' cooking! It is heaven!"

"Whoever marries him is lucky...to get all that cooking..." said Remus, shooting Lily a teasing look.

"Hey!" Lily said.

"I... I want to taste Lily's cooking..." murmured James dreamily.

Lily seemed despaired.

"So here are the rules: No magic, and the meal the two are cooking for is lunch. James and Lily have to decide what food they are making," Remus said.

"I'll make-" James was cut off by Sirius.

"No! Don't tell us what you're making, then we'll make a biased judge. Just make it and present the food to us set up on the table. Then we'll decide. You two have a time limit till...let's say

12 o' clock? But," he said as Lily started moving toward the kitchenette, "the cooking must start after breakfast!"

"Oh shoot!" Remus said, jumping up. "Breakfast!" He dashed to the kitchenette, from which black smoke was drifting from.

Lily turned to the group miserably, "Guys, I hope you know what your getting yourself into. I'm going to skip work and my party planning today just for this. You guys owe me biggg time!"

"Lily... you do that every weekend... insist that your going to work... then..." snickered Lara.

Flushing pink, Lily countered, "The same way Sirius 'helps' you with charms?"

Smirking, Lara replied, "Yeah... exactly that way. Now maybe we should go eat?"


	8. Chapter 8: Pillow Fights and Cooking

**Chapter 8**

_Disclaimer: How many times do we have to say this? We do not own the characters that our lovely Ms. Rowling wrote, and that's all there is to it. We do not own them. We can always wish, but somehow that never seems to work..._

_Author's Note: Thank you so so much to out lovely reviewers! We totally appreciate it! Thanks! Right now we eagerly await whatever comment you lovely people might have on our little story. We love reviews. In fact, we absolutely adore your reviews. We will try to keep up a general update time of about once a week, but in case things get hectic, do forgive us. :) Love you all-_

"Lara!" a very flustered Lily screamed as they walked from the Room of Requirement to the Gryffindor dorms. "I don't know how to cook!"

Lara glanced at Lily, "Well, figure something out, because having Sirius as my slave is just too good to skip out on! If you lose, you take full responsibility of course."

"Well, tough luck, then, because I _don't_ know how to cook!"

Nadia looked at Lily. "Lily, please. Stop whining for a moment, and think. Think of what to cook, and cook it."

"Fine!" Lily huffed. "But what should I cook?"

"Oh, I don't know! Make a stew, a cake, a tart, I don't know, pretend you're making a potion for Professor Slughorn or something."

"But, I don't like stew."

Lara looked close to her boiling point.

"Okay, well, for once, why don't you put that party planning side of you to good use and pretend you do."

Lily looked offended. "People like my part-" she was cut off by a sea of heads shaking in unanimous disagreement.

Lara gave her a sympathetic look, "Sweetie, your parties are kind of... innocent. People go off and party real hard later so they won't offend you."

Lily groaned. "Fine," she said grumpily. She opened a cookbook, closed her eyes, and pointed to a random food item. "There. I'll make this one. It looks the easiest, anyways. Its a-"

"Wait, weren't you not supposed to tell us what you were making?" Lara said, stifling Lily with her hand.

"Get this thing off me!" Lily yelled, except that it was muffled, so it sounded more like, "Mef miff mifff mff mee!"

"Huh?" Lara stared at her, then finally noticed her hand. "Oh," she said, sheepishly, quickly removing her hand.

Lily breathed deeply a couple times and glared at Lara.

"Sorry! I just don't want you to go against the rules or anything!" Lara said, backing away and bumped right into none other than Sirius.

"Ow!" yelled Sirius, but his lips had broadened into a smile as he held tightly onto Lara.

"Hey!" Lara wriggled out of Sirius' grasp.

"How's the cooking coming around?" asked James, winking at Lily.

"Of all the people to meet right now..." Lily muttered.

"Lily! I missed you so much!" James continued, reaching out to hug her fondly. Lily kicked his shin not so fondly.

"Not discussing what to cook, are you? You know that's not allowed..." Remus said, looking around. "Hey, er, where's Nadia?"

"She went ahead to the dorm," answered Lara.

"Oh." Remus looked crestfallen.

Lily silenced them all with a scream. "Ateeeennntiiooon!"

There was a brief moment of golden quietness.

"Ooh, someone seems upset..." said Remus.

"Lily, darling, what's the matter? Has Lara been bothering you?" James glared at Lara accusingly.

"We gotta talk," Lily started.

Sirius shrugged. "So what are we doing right now? Sleeping?"

Lily ignored him completely. "I want to be judged by people-people that can make a fair judge."

"That's why you and James aren't allowed to tell anyone," reasoned Remus.

Lily shook her head. "I know that you and Sirius know James too well, as do Nadia and Lara know me well enough. They can really tell which one is who's. And that really is not fair. It is biased."

"So, you're saying indirectly that we should be able to tell our friends what we're making?" James said after a moment, messing up his black hair even more that it already was.

"Hmph, surprising, he can calculate stuff like that in that slow mind of his..." Lily mumbled, and Lara jabbed her with her elbow.

"Ow! Why'd you do-oh, ooohhh!" Lily said, finally realizing what she had said, then tossed her auburn hair and twiddled with her earring.

"Ah-ha! I knew it was that! You don't think you can make the food so you want your friends' help! That's it!" Sirius sniggered, earning a shove from James and a painful poke with Remus' wand, which was smoking thick, black clouds.

"Lily...?" Lara asked questioningly, cocking her head.

"What! No, no, well no, yes, no, no, actually yes-NOT! That's not it, no!" Lily was yelling.

Her friends stared at her suspiciously.

"Geez! Fine then! Whatever!" Lily huffed. "Fine! Do what you want!" She stormed away.

"Dang, she's so adorable when she's mad!" James stared down the hall lovingly.

"Hey, don't you guys feel sorry for her?" asked Lara. "I mean, she wasn't exactly volunteering for this, you know..."

"Yeah..." Remus agreed, thinking back. "Come to think of it, she's been saying all along she couldn't cook, and we just kinda forced her into this."

"Aw, you two with your kind souls...it's only a life or death cooking contest! What's the big deal?" said Sirius grinning. "Stop feeling guilty!"

Lara punched him.

"OWWW!" Sirius screamed. "Why is it that you always get to do that and not me?" he asked.

"Cuz I'm the girlfriend," answered Lara in an innocent voice. "So, what are we gonna do? Hey, James! What do you think?"

James just continued staring down the hall absently, smiling faintly.

"Hey!" Sirius jabbed him.

"Huh? Wha...?" James turned to them.

"Earth to Prongsie!" said Remus.

"What do you think? Should we let Lily get her way?" asked Lara impatiently.

James nodded. "Definitely. Whatever Lily says, goes!"

"Okay then, it's decided! We can get the food judged by some other people, so we can take part in Lily's and James' cooking contest!"

"YESS!" yelled a voice down the corridor.

"Hey...that was..." James started as Lily bounded up the hall back to the group.

"Yes! Yes! Yeahhhh! Awesome, Lara! I knew I could count on you!"

Lara stared at Lily. "You were hiding there that whole time?"

"Yep!" answered Lily brightly. "Come on, we've got lots to do before the cooking. Tomorrow lunch, right?"

Remus nodded dazedly.

"Ok, then! See ya!" With that, Lily pulled Lara back down the hall and disappeared around the corner.

* * *

"So this is what I chose!" Lily said, pointing at the cook book. She was lying on her bed, happily flipping through the step-by-step recipe.

Lara went over to Lily to see what peculiar item Lily had chosen. Her eyes widened slightly.

"Lily," she began. " I don't think this is the easiest thing for amateurs-"

Lily had puffed up indignantly at the word "amateurs". If Lara could have done anything to make her want to make that food, that was it.

"I'm making this food and there's nothing you can do about it." she told Lara coolly, and walked away with what would have been a cool exit, had she not tripped over thin air and stumbled onto the newly washed floor of the dorm.

Nadia, who was lying on her stomach, trying to get Death out from under her bed, burst into a fit of laughter. Lily glared at her menacingly.

Nadia quickly returned to her task. "Nice Death! Come on out..."

Death promptly slid out from under the bed and jumped onto Lily, who was still flat on the floor.

"Get the stupid cat off of me!" Lily growled.

"Apparently you are a nice, comfortable seat!" Nadia giggled louder, and Lara joined in.

"URGH!" Lily roared.

Just then, Alice came waltzing to the girls' dorm and, not even bothering to ask about what had happened, picked up Death, placing it in her own lap as she sat down next to Lara. Lily stood up and walked back to them, trying to keep what little pride she had not injured in her fall.

"Greetings, minions of mine," Alice said dreamily. "I heard about the cooking contest that might just get me someone to collect the creatures a the bottom of the sea for me. What's Lily making?" she asked Lara.

Lara picked up the book and showed the picture to Alice.

"This." she said gloomily, and for a brief moment there was silence.

"Oh." said Alice disappointedly. "That doesn't look so easy. Lily-doll, I want a slave, so pick something that is not quite so creepy and that you will invariably mess up." Then her face lit up. "Oh, well, worst comes to worst, I'm sure the thestrals will eat it!"

Lara shook her head. "Not by the time Lily's done with it."

Lily glared at both of them. "I love your confidence in me."

Nadia looked at Lily. "Just do your best, Lily-doll."

"If you lose, I'll kill you." Lara glared at Lily.

Nadia snickered. "Yeah, no pressure there. Just, try your best."

"But, if your best isn't good enough, consider yourself dead already," Lara tried to sneer at Lily, but the effect was ruined with a smile tugging at her lips.

Lily sighed. "I hate you guys. A lot, let me tell you."

Alice giggled. "Oh, Lily, I never knew you had a dark side!"

Lily glared at her. "Alice, there are a lot of things about me that you do not know."

Lara snorted. "I should hope so!"

Nadia snickered. "Eeew, Lara. That's disgusting."

Alice shrugged. "I don't know much about you, Lily, that's true. I just know the exterior you. And Lara, why is that a good thing?"

Lara looked away. "Never mind," she mumbled, controlling a smirk.

"Whatever," Nadia said, rolling her eyes. "Forget it."

Alice smiled. "All right, then, darlings. I should go, now, to get to my dorm. As I'm sure you guys know, I'm in Slytherin, and my dorms are not your dorms, and I need to get to my dorms. That means, my dear friends, that I need to go. Farewell!" And with that, each friend gave their separate goodbyes, and Alice danced down the hall to the left, laughing her unusual laugh, and finally disappeared into her Slytherin common room.

Lara laughed. "Oookaaay, then. Hey, I wonder why the hat placed her in Slytherin..." she said, absently.

"Maybe she has hidden talents or something? I mean she isn't the bravest, the smartest, and I haven't come to see her as someone who always works hard and never gets any results..." Nadia commented.

"Hey! That was mean!" Lily screeched.

"Okay, okay, chill! I was just kidding!" Nadia giggled, sharing a meaningful look with Lara.

"I saw that!"

* * *

Sirius chuckled. "Merlin, I can't wait until you win! You'd better win!"

Remus laughed. "You don't have anything to worry about. James's cooking is the best."

"Cool, now I'd better get thinking about what to cook...Though, having Lily as my slave...Don't you think that would make her hate me more?" James asked, with a note of concern.

"Don't worry about that," Remus said, stifling a laugh. "Just cook as you normally do. All will be fine, watch and see."

"Ya, mate, you'll be fine." Sirius said.

James sighed. "Yeah, I'm sure you're right. Well, I'd best be going, then."

"Ya, we all should go." Remus said, standing up.

The three of them made their way out towards the Gryffindor dorms. James was still so worried about what Lily would say when he beat her (being the egotistical guy he was, he expected to have total victory).

When they reached the dorms, he was still so worried that he didn't join Sirius in the usual pillow fight. Sirius, feeling lonely (as you can only have a pillow fight with two or more people) began to sulk in a corner, muttering something along the lines of "...no one likes me...they're all big mean bullies...always liked Prongs better than me, didn't they?"

Even Lupin was vaguely concerned, as he didn't have to apologize to the entire male Gryffindor dorm for keeping them awake until 1:00 AM in the morning, which had become a common occurrence in the lives of the males. In fact, many of the 7th year boys had tried several times to sleep in the girl's dormitories, but didn't manage to get up the stairs. So they gave up and slept on the floor of the common room. The entire dorm experienced an eerily quiet night and some were actually beginning to hope someone would cause some trouble.

The next morning, James sat up with a start, he had woken up periodically that night thinking about what he was going to cook, he knew that picking something totally fancy that no one knew about would just kill his chances of winning.

"Hmmm... Pie sounds good... yeah... No! Cake! No! Pie! No!Oooooh, PASTA!" James jumped off his bed in elation, he had finally found the perfect food that could please all (A/N: no offense intended to those who don't like pasta).

"You okay, mate?" grumbled Sirius groggily.

"PASTA!" cried James once more in triumph.

" 'k... You go with that..." grumbled Sirius as he turned over and pulled the covers over his ears.

"James?" came a sleepy voice that sounded vaguely like an irate Remus.

"Yeah?"

"Out. Now."

"Wai- What? Whyyyyyyy?"

" 'Cause it's 4 bloody o'clock in the morning!"

"...So?" James did not manage to get much farther as Remus had taken the initiative to get up and kick him out of the room and lock the door. Jams sighed in frustration and made his way to the common room only to see the outline of a figure in the chair.

"Potter?" cried Lily in surprise.

"Nooooo, only Potter's ghostly spirit."

"Ah. Figures. I knew that eventually your friends would kill you for the way you were yelling."

"Oh crap, could you hear me from here?" questioned James, slightly flustered.

Lily chuckled, "Yeah. Getting up and yelling 'pasta' at the top of your lungs isn't very... un- conspicuous."

James tousled the back of his head anxiously, "Ah, yeah... So what are you gonna cook?"

"An appetizer of chestnut soup with cream fraiche, a main dish of cognac shrimp with beurre blanc sauce and lemon rosemary chicken, and a dessert of chocolate souffles."

"...Oh...It sounds complicated. You must be really good to be able to make that," responded James with a fond smile. In his mind, Lily could do anything.

"Y..Yeah. I guess," said the distressed girl.

"Hey, don't stress out too much, okay? This is just for fun. C'mon, where's that competitive Lily that I know, always ready to kick my ass into next year?"

"Language, Potter. And be careful, I might have to kick you and your pathetic pasta out of the show with my brilliant cooking!"

"Better. But you can do more."

"Potter."

"What? And I thought we were on first name basis?"

"James."

"Yes, love?"

"Get the hell outta my face."

James stuck out his tongue, "Language, Lily darling. I'll be off then, goodnight."

"Nite, and James?"

"Yeah?"

"You suck at cheering people up."

"Love you too." and with a grin and a wink he was off.


	9. Chapter 9: French Cooking Gone Wrong

_**Author 1's Disclaimer: **__Now, I'm willing to bet that over half of you readers don't read the disclaimers. I know, because I don't. But I'm still going to put a lot of effort into the disclaimers. And if you don't read disclaimers, you'd better watch it, because when I'm through with you, your favorite -and only- hobby will be cultivating mushrooms. So...here goes. Sigh. Okay, I do not own any of the characters that are found in any published book with Harry Potter in it's name. There. That good enough? No? Well, you don't own them either, so I suggest you SHUT YOUR MOUTH before I shut it for you. Thank you, and have a nice day. _

_**Author 2's Disclaimer:**_ _Hello, peoples! This is the first time, as you may have noticed, that we have written separate disclaimers. But, the same information is in both. We don't own J.K. Rowling's awesome characters, but we have some of our own. If you have even skimmed through Harry Potter books, you should be able to tell quite easily. Now the reason behind the 2 disclaimers...is because_ _I (Author 2)_ _think that we Authors should be SUPER NICE to our readers, and frankly Author 1's disclaimer, though I, being a friend of Author 1, know that Author 1 would never do anything mean to anyone intentionally, is not the nicest thing ever. SOOOO, just to clear the air, I have written a second disclaimer, and hope that it will do well to our readers! _

_**Author's 1's Note: **__How was the last chapter? Long, that's what. The four of us had a big confusion writing this chapter, but it is all sorted out now. Ugh, it was confusing. But like Author 2 said, "All's well that ends well!" Oh, I feel like drinking tea. Maybe I will... What kind of tea do you like? My favorite? Hmm...I really like vanilla black tea. I drank it at Author 3's house, at a tea party. It was deeeelicious. Okay, though, you're probably getting bored with me. On with the story... _

_**Author's 3's Note**__: I am Author 3! The one you guys haven't met yet (Well, I have t written very personal messages but you have heard from me)! Okay, so about our disclaimer, Author 1 did not mean to offend anyone. And cultivating mushrooms... well... one of the authors and I(the one who hosted the tea party) have a great liking for anime/manga, so whenever the characters get all depressed and sit in corners with dark clouds above them we call it 'mushroom cultivation' and whenever bad things happen to us, we sit down and yell 'mushroom cultivation!'. We actually started a kind of club thing for it too ^'^. Yeah, so enjoy, and prepare for a whole lot of action!_

_Love, Author 1, 2, and 3  
_

"Lara! Lara!" whispered Lily, gently shaking her friend awake.

"Mmmmm..." Lara turned around sleepily. "Mom?" She yawned and shoved her head back into the pillow.

"Do I look like your mom?" Lily hissed and several girls stirred. Lily looked around apologetically. "Lara!" She sighed. This was NOT working.

Lily turned and headed toward one of her, hopefully, more reliable friends. "Hey, Nadia! Nadia! Wake up!"

Nadia didn't even move.

"Is she alive?" Lily said, shuddering, and put her ear close to her friend's face. Nadia sneezed loudly.

"Ow!" Lily leaped up, surprised, and rubbed her ear. "Too alive!" she muttered, frustrated. She needed another plan. Definitely. Lily looked around for ideas, and Death, slinking around the sleeping dorm, caught Lily's eye.

"Ah-ha!" Lily smiled, and brought her lips close to Nadia's ear. "Nadia!"

The sleeping girl didn't stir.

"Death is sick!" Lily whispered lightly.

"WHAT!" Nadia bolted up from her bed. "What happened to Death? Is Death dying?"

Lily laughed. "How can Death die?"

Nadia's glare sent shivers up Lily's spine "_What happened to Death?_You woke me up saying she was ill, and now you're laughing. _Shut your mouth and tell me!_"

Lily was slowly backing away. Any other time she would have retorted, "How can I tell you and shut my mouth at the same time?" but Nadia's eyes were too frightening."Ummm, she's fine. I just...wanted to get you awake," she confessed meekly.

"Don't you ever do that again! I don't care if you're my best friend, I will do something scary to you. On _my_ terms scary."

Lily nodded. Something on "Nadia's term" scary was _really scary. _

"Good. We understand each other. Now I'm going back to bed." Nadia buried her face in the covers.

"What? No, no, please? It's just...today's the cooking thing, and I'm nervous!" Lily seemed crestfallen.

Nadia's head popped back up. "Oh yeah!" she said, jumping off the bed. "No wonder you're all weird right now!" She gave Lily a hug. "I'm so sorry for getting mad at you (not really but that's okay), I should have known better. But," Nadia's eyes glared at Lily again, "don't ever pretend Death is sick again!"

A flood of relief drowned Lily. "Oh, I won't, don't worry!" she said, returning the embrace.

"So, are you still doing that impossible recipe?" Nadia asked worriedly.

Lily nodded. "I'm gonna do the chestnut soup with cream fraiche, cognac shrimp with beurre blanc sauce and lemon rosemary chicken, and chocolate souffles."

"Yeah...the impossible one. Trust me, I've tried it. And, no offense or anything, I am a better cook than you, and it was hard for me. Remember I served it to you guys?" Nadia said, frowning.

Lily cocked her head, and had a vague memory of forcing down the terrible foods-of course she really loved French food, it was her favorite and cooked right, it was fantastical. But when it was _not _cooked right...Oh Merlin! Anyway, she knew because one warm summer, Nadia had been obsessed with cooking foods from around the world, and came up with the French dishes-the ones that she was doing for the contest. Lily had forced it down, as to not offend Nadia, despite the fact that Alice had taken one look and went skipping out looking for snorkacks or something, and Lara had refused to eat another bite after taking a small spoonful of the chestnut soup and spitting it out. Promptly afterwards, Lily had a fit barfing...followed by another, and another, and another. Literally. The hallways leading from the Room of Requirement to the hospital wing were almost flooding with...well Lily didn't even want to think about it. After that Filch seemed to be more nasty and mean than usual.

"I remember," answered Lily, nodding.

"Um, Lily, are you okay?" asked Nadia in a concerned voice, "You look a little...green..."

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine, just fine! Just...worried," answered Lily, looking away. "Here, can you help me awaken Lara?" She motioned to Lara's bed on the other side of the room. "And then maybe Alice?"

Nadia looked at Lily matter-of-factly. "You know how hard it is to wake up Lara. It is virtually impossible! I'll go get Alice, okay?" She changed into a pair of jeans and t-shirt. "Be back! Good luck with Lara!" With a wave, she left the dormitory.

Lily sighed. Here goes nothing. She braced herself as she made her way to the seemingly innocent Lara. "Lara!" Lily pulled Lara's blanket off the bed. "Wake up!" She grabbed the pillow and tugged it out from under Lara's head. "LARA!" she screamed as loudly as she dared into Lara's ear.

Lara raised her arm and accidentally whacked Lily. "Mmmmm... 'm awake. Five more mins..." she murmured.

"OW! Painfullll..." Lily rubbed her poor cheek. "Well, it was some progress!" She tried again. "LARA! Darling, wake up! PLEASE?"

Lara's hand crept up to her dresser and fell upon her alarm clock. "Go...wayyyy..." she mumbled and threw.

For a sleeping person, her aim was amazingly accurate. If Lily hadn't ducked, it would have hit her full in the face. But since she did duck, soared toward the innocent Alice who had just made her way up the dorm.

"Whoa!" Alice caught the flying alarm clock. "Hmm... It appears that you girls have Wufflewargs in your dorm...Got to wear my radish earrings again for protection.. I can get you guys some if you want too...Hey, Lily!" She hummed softly as she danced to Lara. "Let me help you with that..."

"What are Wuff- never mind, I probably don't want to know," said Lily.

Nadia crept up the stairs soon afterwards. "What happened?" she asked Lily as her eyes fell onto Lily's cheek, which had a red mark suspiciously looking like a hand print. "She didn't...She sleep whacked you too?"

"Huh? Uh, yeah..." Lily said, turning away. "Come on, help me...need all the help we can get."

"Yeah..." Nadia nodded. "Hey, do you know what James is doing in the common room, snoring his head off?"

* * *

James woke with a start. "Where..." He looked around, then remembering the event of the past night-no, morning-laughed aloud. However, his chuckle soon faded away as he thought of what to cook. "Pasta...that's it, pasta...But Nadia did pasta for the picnic, what if I'm compared to her...oh yeah, but then no one except for us tasted it, huh? Yeah...pasta...but then there's cake...and pie...and Lily's doing a full course meal...that's French..." He licked his lips.

"Yum...so I should do a full course too! But oh, what if Lily hates me because I win? AHHH! Maybe I should just lose on purpose...What do you think?" he asked, holding up his hand. "Since you're doing all the cooking, what's your opinion on this?" James said to his hand. He jumped as he heard a voice.

"Talking to your own hand. The first sign of madness," said a knight roaming in and out of a painting.

"Huh? Who are you?" James asked, still not realizing it was a painting. "Come out!"

"Now what are you doing?" James jumped a second time as he heard a familiar voice. "Are you talking to your imaginary friend who is hiding from you?" Lily chuckled, climbing down the stairs to the common room.

"Or maybe you're hallucinating Lily..." Nadia added, grinning.

"More likely it's a Wufflewarg whispering in your ear... They've infested the girl's dorm, you know," said Alice wiping her wet hands on her jeans.

Lara sniffled, trying desperately to comb through her dripping hair. "Yeah, right." She sneezed, sending drops of water everywhere.

"Why in the name of Merlin's beard is her hair dripping wet?" James asked.

"Because some people decided to wake me up by pouring a bucket of water on my head!" screamed Lara, then sneezed.

"Only because she refused to wake up!" protested Nadia, petting a purring Death. "And stop spraying so much water! Death doesn't like it!"

"Well if you hadn't dumped a pail of water on my head, I wouldn't be _*achoo!_* sneezing! Sheesh!" Lara exclaimed.

"You really didn't wake up though! We tried, like, everything!" Alice said.

Lily nodded. "Look, we screamed in your ears-everyone else in the dorms bolted awake except for you- and we pulled your hair-"

"WHAT? You what?" Lara demanded.

"Well, it didn't help anyway, so..." Nadia muttered.

"No _wonder_ my head hurts so much! URGH! _This _is what I have for best friends!" Lara screamed.

"Hey, well how do you think I feel when I have two friends in the same dorm, and all of them refuse to wake up until I've either threatened them with her pet or dumped water on their head!" Lily shrieked.

"Whoa, whoa! Yeesh, is this what girls do every morning?" James muttered under his breath. Unfortunately, the girls caught all the words.

"You boys don't know anything but how to interfere!"

"Stay out of this!"

"Shut off!"

"Potter! I am seriously considering sending you to the moon right now!"

"Okay, okay! I don't know anything, I unnecessarily interfered, yadayadayada etc."

"Okay, James, just to make that big head of your happy, I will apologize. So, Lara, I am sorry that I poured water on you, pulled your hair, and woke you up."

Nadia nodded, and Alice added, "But the pulling hair was my idea..."

"Yeah, I wanted to use a trumpet!" grinned Nadia evilly.

Lara shook her head. "No, I'm sorry. I have...trouble waking up...and for kinda... sleep whacking you... I know how nervous you are about today, I wasn't thinking right..."

Lily smiled. "Okay, then, it's settled! Now let's go make the food!"

"Wait! Wait!" James yelled. "You know, you can't start until after breakfast!"

Lily frowned. "Hmmppphh. Fine then! Breakfast time!" The girls raced out of the common room and into the Great Hall, full of chattering witches and wizards. As they all sat down at the Gryffindor table, all laughing and talking, Dumbledore stood up and tapped his crystal goblet with his spoon.

"Attention, Students," he said, his piercing blue eyes sparkling with mischief, "I have come to some information that there is to be a cooking competition held between two of our well known students!"

At this there was a wave of excited murmurings and muttering between students, Lily, however, sank into her seat gasping, "Oh Merlin, no... No...nonononono... This can not be happening!"

"Our very own head girl, Lily Evans and one of the infamous Marauders, James Potter, are to hold a competition to test one another's culinary skills. The judges are unbiased as there is one from each house, from Slytherin, we have Ekaterina (_A/N: Okay, so this the alias for the author who hosted the tea party. We decided to be the judges :)),_ from Ravenclaw, we have Blossom, _(A/N: This is the alias for the author who thought that all authors ought to be polite)_, from Gryffindor, we have Mimiona, _(A/N: This is the author who likes vanilla black tea) _and last but not least, we have Amber _(A/N: Due to circumstances you guys have not met this author, but this is one of the mushroom cultivators and anime manga lovers, but not the one who hosted the tea party)._ Due to these wonderful student's work, they and their cooking crew will have the rest of the day off to prepare and carry out the competition. That is all, thank you. You may return to your classes."

* * *

"Oh, Merlin, where's the pot! I need it for the soup!" Lily shouted, waving her arms frantically.

"Here!" Lara threw a pan at Lily, and it dangerously missed her face as it clattered to the floor.

"That is a pan!" yelled Nadia. "Sheesh! I mean, I know that I do most of the cooking here, but you guys don't even know the basics!"

"What's the difference?" muttered Lily as she started chopping up some leafy vegetables.

"Everything!" yelled Nadia. "No! You don't hold the knife like that, it's like this..."

Pots and pans and sauces were all over the counter and the table in the kitchenette. There were chestnuts scattered on the floor, and plates and bowls filled with unknown materials all over the place.

"Where is that disgusting raw chicken?" yelled Lily.

"Should be in the freezer..." Alice said, dancing across the floor.

"It's not here!" announced Lara as she peered into the freezer.

"What?" Lily asked, frowning.

"Huh?" Alice froze and skidded over to the fridge. "Hey, it's here!"

"Merlin...Lily, this is chaotic..." Nadia said.

"Yeah, I noticed!" Lily almost growled. "And you, Nadia, I know you're a great cook, and you are not helping!"

"Hey, sorry! It's not too late to change the menu, and then I'll help. I'm not great with this particular French course! Remember?" Nadia seemed apologetic. "Besides, it is your competition!"

Lily couldn't really say anything to such logic. "Whatever!" she said, fumbling as she tried to chop the chicken up. "Hey, how were you supposed to hold the knife again?"

"No! You don't hold the sharp side, yeah, that way, the handle..."

"Oh, no wonder!"

"Hey, Lily! I think the water is boiling!" screamed Lara. "Oh! What do we do now! Add the salt?"

"Huh? Yeah, three spoons of salt!" notified Lily.

"Gotcha!" Lara grabbed the entire container of salt and dumped it into the water.

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT? THREE SPOONS! NOT THREE MILLION!" Lily screeched.

"Oh..." Lara said sheepishly. "Should I boil the water again?"

"No, duh!"

"Hey, Lily?" called Alice from the corner. She was now twirling around and around.

"Wha?"

"I think the chicken's chopped enough..."

"Huh?" Lily stared down at her hands. She held a pile of shredded chicken. "AHHHH! Oh, Merlin, I was only supposed to slice it into pieces easy to eat!"

"Lily! What about the shrimp?" asked Nadia.

"Shrimp? What shrimp?"

"Earth to Lily! For your second main dish..."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, of course! Yeah!" Lily leaped up and ripped up a bag of frozen shrimp. "Here, Nadia, could you wash them for me?" She threw the bag roughly toward Nadia. Unfortunately, she missed. Now shrimps joined chestnuts in littering the floor.

"Ohhh! Shoot!" Lily said with a frown.

"No worries," Lara knelt onto the floor. "I'll grab-AHHHHH!" Alice, who had been spinning around for a time, had twirled into Lara and toppled over her.

"Ooooh! That was fun!" Alice said, dusting herself off and leaping up.

"Owwww! ALICE!" Lara screamed.

"Ughhh! Why is nothing going right?" Lily screeched. No one heard her. "Guys! Please be quiet!"

Silence. Then a timer went off.

"AHHHHH! Not even the timer will listen to me!" Lily jumped up and down.

"Lily! We got to make the appetizer!" Lara said suddenly, as to avoid the awkward moment. "What does it say in the book?"

Lily showed her the book. It read:

* * *

Ingredients:

4 cups strong vegetable stock

8 ounces cooked chestnuts

1 cup chopped white onions

1/2 cup chopped carrots

1 thin celery stalk with leaves, chopped (1/2 cup chopped celery)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

3/4 cup plus 1/4 cup crème fraiche, divided

* * *

"What are we waiting for? Come on, this doesn't sound...so bad..." Alice said beaming. "I'll cut the onions, carrots, and celery!"

"Alice, I did that already," Lily said proudly. "See?" she held up a plate of chopped vegetables. Each piece was roughly the size of a golf ball.

"Lily...I hate to say this, but that is way too...big. We need to _chop _it. Emphasis on chopped," Lara said delicately.

"Huh? Oh...oops..." Lily said disappointed. "Hey, um Alice, can you get the chestnuts from the floor and wash them again instead...maybe you should peel them, too. Please? I'm gonna figure out how to make this stupid knife work!" She held up the knife and smiled.

"Hey, um, Lily...?" Nadia said cautiously. "Hold the knife by the handle...no, no, the other way...No wonder they didn't chop well...You're holding the blade! Doesn't that hurt?"

"Yeah...I was wondering why I was bleeding...Well it's only a quick spell to fix my hand up, so whatever!" Lily started chopping up the vegetables again.

Lara announced, "Well, I'll grab the cup of crème fraiche!"

"Careful not to spill!" Nadia reminded.

"Too late!" said Alice happily, as Lara danced across the kitchenette, waving the cup in her hand and leaving drops of crème fraiche everywhere.

"Ugh!" Nadia muttered. "Okey, doke, we also need...half a teaspoon of salt and one-eight teaspoon of pepper!"

A jar of pepper came flying.

"AHHH!" Nadia yelled and ducked.

There was a loud sound of glass shattering as pepper flew everywhere.

"A-a-a-chooo!" Lara sneezed. "Who-ACHOO!-threw that?"

"I did!" Alice pranced over. "Ooh...that cold water this morning must have given you a cold..."

"No, it's the pepper!" yelled Lara.

"Oh, really?" Alice grabbed Lara's arms and started to polka with her.

"You stop doing that!" Lara yelled, trying to get out of Alice's grasp.

"La-la-la~!" Alice sang, turning and twirling.

Lily sighed. "And we can't even use magic to clean up this mess!" she cried miserably.

Nadia nodded. "Unfortunately, it is against the rules...It's fine...the floor is clean, so, we can gather some up and use..." her voice trailed off as Alice danced into the pile of pepper. "Never mind..."

Lily forced a smile and reached into the cabinet again. "Here, it's fine, there's another jar of pepper here. And here's the salt!" She poured the correct amounts into two small bowls. "Now what next?"

"In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the vegetable stock, chestnuts, onions, carrots, celery, salt, and pepper to a simmer. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to low-medium, and simmer the soup for 30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Stir in 3/4 cup of the crème fraiche," Nadia read aloud from the cookbook.

"Okay, then. Where's the saucepan?" asked Lily.

"Here! Catch!" A pot came soaring through the air.

Lily caught it and said, "Thanks, Lara!"

"No, it's not thanks!" Nadia said, exasperated. "It should be a no thanks. That is a pot!"

"I still don't see the difference..." muttered Lily, but dropped the pot. "Then what's the saucepan?"

"Here!" Alice threw a kettle to Lily.

"Awesome! Thanks!" Lily yelled, promptly placing it onto the fire.

"No, no, no, no!" cried Nadia. "_That_ is a kettle!"

"Oh...Well then it must be this, it's the only thing that they haven't thrown to me!" Lily held up a saucepan, beaming triumphantly.

"YES!" Nadia said in a relieved voice.

"Okay, then!" Lily dumped her semi-chopped vegetables into the pan along with the salt and pepper. "Hey...I think we're missing something!"

"Yeah...the chestnuts!" Nadia said, rolling her eyes. "Hey, Alice! The chestnuts!"

"Coming!" said a dreamy voice. Alice dropped in a handful of peeled chestnuts into the pan.

"Hey, Nadia, didn't it say that the chestnuts had to be...cooked?" asked Lily in an anxious voice.

Nadia nodded, and her eyes widened. "Are these...raw?"

Alice shrugged. "I dunno...I only did what Lily told me to..." she said innocently.

"No one bothered to cook these!" shrieked Lily.

Alice shook her head.

Nadia shrugged.

Lara answered softly, "I guess so..."

"Oh, Merlin..." Lily sighed.

"We can do it again...?" suggested Nadia quietly.

"No, we can't! We are all out of veggies and chestnuts...and running low on pepper, thanks to someone..." Lily said miserably.

"I'm sorry!" Alice giggled.

"Never mind, Alice, it's fine. It'll just have to work...raw or not," Lily said determinedly.

"That's the spirit!" said Lara with a whoop.

"Atta girl!" yelled Nadia.

"Hm..." hummed Alice.

"Okay, so we let this simmer for half an hour, ooh, first we have to cover it!" Lily placed the top onto the pan. "And then we...just wait?" She looked questioningly to Nadia.

"Umm...no. You work on something else while it is simmering!" she said.

"Okay, then. Time for the lemon rosemary chicken! Where's the chicken?" she asked with a grimace.

"Here!" Alice smiled as she held up a bowl full of shredded chicken.

"Oh yeah...oh shoot...that isn't cut right..." Lily said, frowning.

"Okay, so what do you do now?" Lara asked.

Lily flipped through the cookbook. "Says here to...Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius."

"Alrighty, then!" Nadia fiddled with the oven. "Got it! Just wait a little till it gets to 200 degrees..."

"Meanwhile, we need to place oil, garlic, and rosemary in a mortar and pestle. Pound until well combined. Season with salt and pepper," Lily said, reading aloud.

"Okay, will-do! I don't want you guys to throw stuff around any more!" Nadia said, getting the garlic and oil. "Hey, do we have rosemary?"

"Do you mean the stuff the cat's eating?" asked Alice absently.

"WHAT?" shrieked Lily.

"Oh, no, no, no!" Nadia peered into Death's mouth. "Oh, no! Do you think rosemary will make it sick?"

"Puh-leez! I don't think that's the problem!" Lara said. "How the heck are we gonna make rosemary chicken without rosemary?"

"Oh, yeah, huh..." Nadia said, looking sheepish.

"Never mind!" said Lily in a forced bright tune. "Here, uh, it can be just lemon chicken!"

"Okay, but I dunno..." Lara said.

"It'll be fine...I hope..." Lily said. "Nadia, just continue without the rosemary, okay?"

Nadia nodded, and after a moment, she announced, "I'm done!"

"Yay! Soooo, we arrange the chicken in a large roasting pan. And we rub the mixture Nadia just made over the chicken. EWWW!" Lily said.

"No worries, I'll do it!" Lara, though was looking a little disgusted, washed her hands and started. "Yuck...shredded raw chicken..."

"And then we place lemon wedges around and under the chicken..." Lily continued. She got up and placed a whole lemon into the roasting pan.

"Um...Lily?" asked Nadia.

"Hmm?"

"Lemon _wedges._..not whole lemons."

"Ahh..." Lily smiled and started slicing the lemons. "Hey! I'm not bleeding this time!" she said happily.

"Well...it's an improvement!" Nadia said, being uncharacteristically optomistic.

"Okay, so after that we roast the chicken until it's golden and cooked through. We serve it with baked lemon wedges," Lara said as she cleaned her hands, as she was done rubbing the mixture over the chicken.

"Good." Lily threw a bunch of lemon slices in the pan and pushed it into the oven. "It should take about an hour."

"Lily...?" Alice said, dancing around. "Something's burning!"

"What? Oh, no! Not the raw chestnut soup! Someone add the creme fraiche before it burns completely!" Lily yelled.

"Gotcha!" Lara dumped in a cup of white stuff into the simmering vegetables.

"Hey, Lara...I think that was the milk Death was just drinking..." Nadia said cautiously.

"You are kidding me!" Lily had turned pale. "Oh, Merlin!"

"Never mind. It'll work...probably..." Alice said as she poured in the actual creme fraiche. "Three-fourths of it, right?"

Lily nodded. "It's gonna have to work..." she mumbled to herself. "Now, we process the soup in batches in a blender until it is smooth." She grabbed a blender and poured the soup like thing into it. "Here it goes!" She pressed the button.

"AHHHHHHH!"

"LILY!"

"WHAT IS THIS?"

There were cries and shrieks as white "soup" flew everywhere.

"YOU HAVE TO PLACE THE TOP OF THE BLENDER ON IT BEFORE BLENDING IT!" yelled Nadia as she pressed the stop button.

"Oh..." Lily said blankly as she wiped off the soup from her hair. She tasted it. "Mmmm...Not bad!" she said and gagged.

"Hehehe...I don't think I'll taste that anytime soon..." Lara said, trying (and failing) to clean herself.

"Hey, well, it's not as bad as I thought it would be..." Lily answered as she placed the top onto the blender. "Okay, lets blend this...not that much is left..." She pressed the button, and with a whirring sound, the soup was blended.

"Alright, so that's done..." Nadia said.

"Next we spoon it out into bowls and garnish it with the remainder of the creme fraiche," Lily read, and brought out four bowls. She started distributing the soup among the bowls.

"Lily...?" said Alice again.

"Hmm...?"

"Something's burning..."

"AHHHH! THE CHICKEN!" Lily screamed and threw herself at the oven. Unfortunately, it was about 300 degrees...

"OOOWWW!" Lily yelped as she stuck her hand under the faucet. "OWWW! Painful!"

"Gee, Lily-flower, careful!" Nadia said as she used a potholder to get the pan out. Black smoke billowed out of the chicken. "Hmm...looks overcooked..." she said matter-of-factly.

Lara nodded and coughed. "Yeah, at this rate we're all gonna perish of lung cancer."

"Hey! Isn't death _my_ specialty?" Nadia said, grinning.

Lara shrugged.

"Okay, well so our first main dish is done, as well as our appetizer!" exclaimed Lily happily.

Alice nodded. "Hmm...I don't know if the thestrals will eat this now..."

Lily gasped, looking mildly offended, but let it pass. "Onwards!"

"Okay, for the shrimp cognac with beurre blanc sauce..." Nadia said, grimacing.

"We have so much left!" Alice said, pausing in her dance. "Hey...! Where did all the shrimp go? Weren't they on the floor?"

Lara nodded. "Well, they _were_..." She stared pointedly at Death.

"Nadia!" yelled Lily! "Control your cat!"

"Oh, Merlin! Death! What have you done! Did you eat all the shrimp?" Nadia screeched.

"Ladida...hey, I found a shrimp!" Alice threw it across the room to Lily.

Lily caught it and threw it to Death, who promptly swallowed it whole.

"Why did you do that?" asked Lara.

"Oh, come on! We're not gonna have cognac shrimp with one piece of shrimp!"

"Ooh, but here's another one!" Alice said triumphantly, holding up another shrimp.

"Then what?" Nadia asked. "Are you just going to have beurre blanc sauce?"

Lily sighed. "I guess we have to have only one main dish..."

"That's fine!" Lara said. "One main dish, is totally awesome! See, it even smells good!" She took a deep whiff of the burnt chicken and had a big coughing fit.

Lily nodded. "Yeah, right."

"Hey, well, there's always the dessert!" said Nadia cheerfully.

Lara looked around guiltily. "Soooo, your dessert was chocolate souffles..."

"Yeah...so, where's the gourmet chocolate. It said that gourmet chocolate had the best results so I bought that..." Lily looked around.

"Well, Lily...the thing is, that, you see...Did I ever mention that I loved chocolate?" Lara asked, licking her lips.

"Yeah...wait...NO! No, you didn't eat that whole pack of chocolate?" Lily shrieked.

"Well...It was good! And at first it was only one bite, but it was just so heavenly, I ate more, and more, and now...it's gone!" Lara said, smiling in spite of herself at the thought of the chocolate.

"LARA!" Lily screeched.

Nadia sighed. Then she looked at Lily and Lara. "Lara," she said, with forced calmness. "Now Lily is going to lose."

Lara looked up. "What? No!"

Lily looked at Lara. "See what you did?"

Alice laughed. "No, no, no, Nadia, don't say that. We still have a chance!"

Lily coughed. "Right. You know what, Alice? Look around yourself. Name one way we have a chance to win."

Alice looked around the room, her gaze falling on the raw peeled chestnuts, the chewed up rosemary, the pepper pile, the golf-ball sized vegetables, the burnt chicken, the white chestnut "soup", and Death licking his paws in the corner. Then she sighed, and nodded. "I'm sure there's a way. We just need to...think..."

"Yeah, and I'm sure that thinking will help Lily win this contest," Lara said angrily.

Nadia sighed. "Hey, guys, I...I'm sorry. I don't think that Lily has any chance at winning. So, in other words, Lily's gonna lose, and we are all gonna become slaves."

Lily grimanced. "Okay, if you guys know one thing about me, it's that I hate James Potter. Do not let me become his slave. Please. There has to be _something _we can do!" She looked around hopefully, but was met with blank, depressed faces.

Lara shrugged. "Lily, unless you want to cheat, tough luck. Believe me, I don't want to be Sirius' slave either. Ugh, he's just gonna have me snog him all day. Not that I don't like it or anything, but, all day? Bleagh. But just like what would happen if we won, and they would be our slaves, if they win, and they will, we are going to, and will have to be their slaves. Sorry."

Nadia looked at Lara. "Wait, what do you mean by cheat?"

Lara smiled mischievously. "Well, we can always have the house elves make something for us, then order them not to tell anyone. No one would ever know."

Alice giggled. "Sounds perfect."

Lily shook her head. "Hey, guys? I'd rather lose than win by cheating."

Nadia nodded. "Lily has a point. Besides, she's the one who's gonna be embarrassed in front of the whole school, and probably die of misery. Not out fault."

Lily glared at Nadia. "Not your fault? Who didn't cook the chestnuts? Who ate the chocolate? Who didn't catch the pepper so it fell all over the floor? And who couldn't control that _stupid _cat of yours, so it chewed up the rosemary and ate the shrimp? And now, like you conveniently mentioned, I'm about to embarrass myself in front of the whole school. Sure, I messed up, too. But, you know what else? I didn't even sign up for this stinkin' contest in the first place!"

Nadia shrugged. "Right. But, I don't think it would be a bad idea to ask the house elves to help us out."

"I do," Lily sighed.

Alice giggled. "Okay, don't you guys think we should start cleaning up this mess?"

Lara, who had been watching the small argument between Lily and Nadia with worried eyes, nodded. "Let's get this mess cleaned up," she said, turning around to wash the "soup" from the walls.

Nadia and Lily looked at each other. Lily smiled nervously, before saying, "Hey, sorry. It's just...I don't really want to be embarrassed in front of the whole school. It's not really a pleasant thought."

Nadia smiled tentatively. "No problem. if I were in your place today' thank Merlin I'm not, but if i were, I'd probably be a bit mad, too."

Lily giggled. "Now, let's go help them clean up."


	10. Chapter 10: Pesto Pasta and Cookies

_**Author 1's Disclaimer:**_ _We do not own any of the characters that you recognize from the Harry Potter books._

_**Author 2's Disclaimer:**_ _Well I have nothing more to say, as Author 1's disclaimer was short and sweet. But to specify, I'll add..._

_James, Sirius, Remus, and any other character from Rowling's Harry Potter series do not belong to us! Although, they are just as good (we refuse to say better) as ours. Thank you. _

_**Author 1's Note: **__Hey, you might've noticed that my disclaimer was shorter than usual. Well, I was kinda feeling bad for yelling at you guys last chapter, so I decided to just keep it simple and nice. But anyway, on a happier not, we now have five reviews! So, thank you to all you lovely reviewers, especially to Amanda-panda and to Orange-Coyote... And, to the rest of you lazy readers, REVIEW! 421 people read our story, why is it that we only have 5 reviews? REVIEW! Oh, shoot, I was supposed to be nice. Kay, well, let me rephrase. I would really really appreciate it if you guys would review, because they are totally awesome. How'd you like the last chapter? Gosh, I was laughing whilst writing/editing it. Ya, well, last chapter we hardly included James and didn't even mention his cooking, so this chapter will mainly be about James' (hopefully not so dramatic) cooking adventures. Again, you guys, review! And peace out, baby, and stay cool... :D_

_**Author 2's Note: **__Thank you for the five people who have reviewed, and even more special thanks to Miss Amanda Panda, but we would also be grateful for more. Reviews are our dreams...so please, please review! How it would delight us! Even a word or two about the story is much appreciated, even critique, bad or good, that would help us to improve our writing! Thank you again! _

"_**Ekaterina's" Note**__: Heya, I'm gonna start referring to myself as Ekaterina because it makes life a lot easier than saying Author 1, Author 2, etc. So yeah, hope you enjoy! We re-posted the last chapter so now you know all of our aliases. Thank you for reading! We love reviews :3 and to AmandaPanda, thank you for taking time out to read the story we've been talking about so much... worked our much better than Pearl, huh? :)_

_**All the Authors' Note**: Special thanks to Amanda Panda, Orange-Coyote, and Rose-chan-chan! Thank you for your reviews!_

Now, the whole time Lily and the girls were making a mess of themselves, James was cooking his meal. He had decided just to make pesto pasta, and for dessert, bake cookies. Those were not only delicious, but they were also simple to make.

"Hey, James, we're counting on you!" said Remus settling himself down in a chair.

Sirius rubbed his hands together. "Finally! Lara as my slave!"

James smiled, then frowned. "But what if Lily will hate me because of this?"

"Mate, she already-OW!" Remus had stabbed Sirius with his wand-again.

James seemed not to notice. "I don't want Lily to hate me..." he pouted.

"Mate, Lily won't hate you any more than she already does because of this! Now stop worrying like a sissy and get to work!" Remus reassured.

"Okay then..." James agreed and washed his hands, but Remus could see through him. And he could see that if he didn't stop James, he would mess up on purpose and make a fool out ofhimself.

"In fact, I'm positive that Lily would better like a guy that knows how to cook!" Remus said brightly.

Sirius stared at said speaker and raised an eyebrow. "Really?" he mouthed.

Remus nodded slightly.

"If you say so, Moony!" James' expression had brightened considerably, and now he was even humming as he started with the pesto pasta.

"So, what type of pasta are you using?" asked Sirius.

"Angel hair pasta. It's really delicate and adds to the texture of pesto pasta. The pasta is store bought, but I'm making my special pesto sauce for this!" James said excitedly, setting a pot of water on the stove. James had gone up to Headmaster Dumbledore, and made sure that any boilers, stoves, ovens, or any other electronic thing could be allowed, so the electronics wouldn't go haywire with all the magic.

"So, what do you think of chocolate chip cookies for the dessert?" asked James.

Sirius grinned like a fool . "Any food with the words 'chocolate' and 'cookies' in the name sounds perfect."

"No, but I heard that the Gryffindor judge didn't like chocolate..." Remus said sensibly.

"Who is she anyway? I think I've seen her around I have never really talked to her... I think that all the four judges are close though." asked James.

"Her name is Mimiona. She's in 3rd year now... I heard she's picky, so she might be a problem," Remus said. .

"But...but...how is it possible for anyone to NOT like chocolate?" demanded Sirius.

Remus shrugged. "I dunno...but she's kinda cute, you know? We see her in the common room a lot of times..."

"Ooh, is our Remus in love with her?" Sirius waggled his eyebrows.

Remus turned red. "No, I-"

"Nah!" James said laughingly, "He's all Alice, so no worries. Although I do have to admit, she is pretty...But no one could be as gorgeous as Lily!" He chuckled.

"But still! How can she not like chocolate?" asked Sirius.

"Actually," said James, adding the pasta into the now boiling water, "I'd like to try to get her to like my chocolate chip cookies...I always did like a challenge. Hey, Remus, you seem to know everything...How are the other girls with chocolate?"

"Hmmm...Well the Ravenclaw, Blossom, fourth year, isn't a large fan of chocolate chip cookies, although she's okay with just chocolate. But dark chocolate is a big no-no for her, too!"

Sirius looked shocked.

"And the Slytherin, Ekaterina, she seems to absolutely adore vanilla but she can take most chocolate unless overly done, and she's kinda... well, ditzy but clever. Can be cruel if she wants, hence the Slytherin. Umm... Oh, yeah, she's pretty much cool with all the houses, close friends with all the other judges." Remus shrugged.

Sirius grinned. "Ah, sounds like my kind of girl! What year did you say she was in again?"

Remus looked at Sirius with a worried expression on his face. "I didn't say."

"Oh. Well, what year is she in?"

Remus grinned. "Too young for you, Sirius. She's in Fourth year."

Sirius frowned. "Man, and I thought I had struck it rich." He grinned at the thought of girls.

"Oooh, man, is Lara gonna be pissed," James snicked.

Sirius quickly snapped out of his dreamish faze, and glared at James. "One word to Lara, and I'll-"

"That's enough, you two lovebirds," Remus interrupted. "James, don't tell Lara. And Sirius, for Merlin's sake, please don't go around fantasizing about girls."

Sirius moved his glare from James to Remus. "Shut your mouth."

Remus chuckled. "Sir, yes sir."

While putting the fresh-picked basil into the food processor, James stifled a laugh. "Oookaaayyy... so, what about the Huffl- wait a minute. Moony, did you just call me and Sirius _lovebirds_?"

James switched the food processor on, and it started with a shudder, and began loudly shredding the basil.

Remus waited until James turned the machine off, then sighed. "The Hufflepuff is called Amber, likes chocolate, especially chocolate chip cookies. But not so much dark chocolate. She's in 3rd year. Very easy going, likes Anime and Manga. I hear that she and Ekaterina have this sort of mushroom cultivating thing that has to do with gloom and manga. Somehow it's a very cheerful affair though."

Sirius frowned. "Merlin, what is with these people and not liking chocolate? I hate all of them!"

James laughed out loud. "Aw, Sirius, you're too kind," he said, reaching in the top cabinet for pine nuts. With some struggle and a couple nuts falling on his head, James got the bag of pine nuts out and measured out a cup. He then dumped the pine nuts into the bowl that had the shredded basil in it.

Remus smiled. "Hey, Prongs, do you need any help with what your doing? Although you seem fine, should we do anything to help you?"

James nodded. "Yes. Remus, you measure out one cup of olive oil, and Sirius, you measure out a half cup of Parmesan cheese."

While the two were doing what they were told to do, James began peeling a clove of garlic. After a moment of rare silence as the boys worked, James said, "Okay, I'm done, you guys?"

Remus nodded, holding up a cup of olive oil, and Sirius chuckled and said, "Yeah mate!"

"That's perfect. Now we put it all into this bowl."

Remus, Sirius, and James all put the ingredients into the bowl, and James got the hand blender out from the cupboard and began pureeing the ingredients together until they were nothing but a thick paste. Remus dropped a pinch of salt into the mixture. Sirius peered into the bowl, stared at it suspiciously for a couple seconds, then dipped his finger into it and tasted it.

"You know," he said conversationally, "regardless of how this green sludge looks, it tastes pretty good! The look is what I expect from one of Lily's dishes. The taste is to the level of my dear Prongsie." he put his wet finger back into the bowl for another bite. Remus grabbed his finger, hissing, "Stop! The last thing we need is for all the judges to catch the seemingly contagious stupidity of Sirius Black! One is already way too much!"

"Actually, negative one Siriuses would be too many for this world." commented James absently.

Sirius looked up from the paste and at Remus. "So, for lack of anything better to say, how are things with you and Alice?"

Remus blinked at the unexpected question. Then he narrowed his eyes slightly. "I could've sworn we dropped this topic the last time you brought up that topic out of sheer boredom."

Sirius swore mentally. Shoot. He had gone in one moment from bored into dangerously boiling waters. He tried to change the topic before Lupin thought that his casual words were insulting enough to give Sirius one of Lupin's punishments. And Lupin's punishments were slightly scarier than the everyday time-out.

"And you, James," Sirius quickly changed topic. "How are thing with you and Lily? I saw you talking to her at the picnic yesterday. What was going on?"

James shrugged. "Not much. We were just talking about...how pretty she is."

Remus turned from Sirius to James, his mouth gaping open. "And she just took that? Without even slapping you? Wow. Improvement."

James smiled proudly. "I know, I'm so hap-oh, crap, the pasta's going to overcook!" He rushed to the stove and turned it off. Then he carefully yanked the pot from the stove and rushed to the sink to drain the water out. "Sirius! Get over here and bring the pesto with you! Remus! Cut up three tomatoes and get them ready!" James drained the water from the pasta, which was (thankfully) not overcooked, and dumped the pasta into another bowl. Sirius came over with the pesto, and poured it into the bowl with the pasta in it. James pulled out two forks from the drawer and began thoroughly mixing the pasta with the pesto.

"Beautiful," James whispered to himself. Remus came over with the freshly cut tomatoes, and sprinkled them on top of the pesto pasta, giving it a very "fresh" look.

Sirius inhaled deeply. "Smells great!"

Remus laughed. "Good job, guys!"

James exhaled, as though he had been holding it while he was cooking. "Yeah. Good job. But, now the cookies. This should be really easy."

James walked over to the stove and turned the dial to 175º C. "Moony, could you please measure out one cup of white sugar? And Padfoot, measure out one cup of softened butter."

"Sure thing, Prongsie-pie," Sirius smirked. "You know how much I love working in the kitchen."

"Well, Padfoot, I know how much you'd love having Lara as your slave, too, so I suggest you just do what I say, and live with it."

"Good point," Sirius chuckled, and walked over to the cabinets to find the butter.

* * *

A few minutes later the three were standing anxiously around the food which was neatly plated on pristine white plates with a simple green leaf design around the border. The chocolate-chip cookies were browned just right. Just looking at it made Sirius' mouth water.

"Prrooongss! Can I have another cookie?" he pleaded.

"Oh, be quiet! You've already had like, what, ten?" Remus said, fishing out his wand again.

"No, no! Don't poke me with that thing again!"

"Ahem!" James said. "Okay, stop bickering! No, Sirius, no more cookies! And Remus, I understand you and totally feel for you."

"Alright mate, time to get this show started!" said Sirius while clapping James on the back.

"Yeah. Lets go kick that fancy shmancy French a la cuisine outta our good old England." chuckled Remus.

"Okay, so, what do you guys want to do for the next hour?" James asked.

Sirius grinned. "Why don't we plan our next prank?"

"Oh, yeah," Remus said, "I forgot to tell you guys. Yesterday I thought of the perfect idea for our next prank. Let me tell you about it." And the three marauders walked side by side out of the kitchenette.


	11. Chapter 11: WSSFC

_**Mimiona's Disclaimer**__: I'm going to try to write in pig-Latin. He-tay haracters-cay on't-day elong-bay to mbrella-Uay ofederation-Cay!_

_**Mimiona's Disclaimer **__**part 2**__: __That was "The characters don't belong to Umbrella Confed..." In case you didn't get that._

_**Ekaterina's Disclaimer**__: Yo! Okay, so we own only the OC characters, in other words, the characters not created by Rowling. Thanks for reading!_

_**Mimiona's Note: **__Okay, for those who have not guess this yet, I am the one who was previously Author 1...In response to Rose-chan-chan's review, I changed my name to Mimiona, the Gryffindor! O.o If that's confusing, live with it, or ask me to change it. Also, we made a few changes to the previous chapters, adding in page breaks and spaces between lines and all that, so it's easier to read. But if you've already struggled through it, I apologize for any confusion. See? I can be mature...Kind of...Heehee, earlier, I just felt like writng in pig-Latin :D Sorry if I did that wrong, I just randomly decided to...And in her review, Rose-chan-chan called me scary. Do I really seem scary? :( I am offended. Don't judge a book by it's cover, young miss ;) So, I hope you're enjoying the story so far...Now that we're on spring break (yay!), we can most likely publish a whole lot of chapters this week :D ...So, enjoy, and review ;) _

_**Blossom's Note:**__ I was previously Author 2, but my pen name is now Blossom. I would like to express my gratitude to all of our readers and reviewers! Enjoy!_

_**Ekaterina's Note:**__ Um, Mimiona, I already assured Rose-Chan that you are quite a cheerful person, so no worries there. :) Hiya everyone, I am Ekaterina the Slytherin. With the numbers, I was Author 3, but I can be referred to the one who hosted the tea party if that helps. I think our notes are getting waaaay too long, I find them fun, but if you guys find it troublesome then please tell us. Thank you very much for reading! 3_

"Oh, Merlin, oh, Merlin, Merlin, Merlin," Lily mumbled, pacing a circle in the now clean kitchenette. "What am I going to do? What are we going to do?"

Alice shrugged. "I have no idea. We're probably going to lose."

Lara frowned. "I think we should do something. Why don't we-"

"Bake a cake!" Nadia interrupted. "Just something! We'll get more credit if we actually have something."

Lily stopped pacing and grinned up at Nadia. "Sounds great. We'll bake a cake. But, for a main dish...?"

"I'll find the recipe for the cake." Lara said, and rushed up to _The Book of Recipes_, and began flipping through it.

Lily jumped up. "Perfect! Alice, you help Lara bake the cake. Be careful, you don't have another try. We have an hour before lunch. Nadia, you help me see if we can save the chicken," she ordered.

"Ma'am, yes ma'am. Sounds like a plan," Nadia smiled. She walked over to the chicken to see if saving it was possible, and said, "Lily, there's no way. We haven't got a chance! It's just...burned!"

Lily followed Nadia to the chicken. "There must be some way! Nadia!" she begged.

Nadia sighed. "Okay, Lily, why don't we start by trying to cut the most burned parts off, and throwing them away?"

"I knew I could count on you to find a way! Let's do it!"

* * *

As Lily and Nadia struggled with the chicken, Lara and Alice were having just as much trouble- deciding on which cake to bake. Lara was for baking a chocolate cake, but Alice kept reminding her that almost all of the judges didn't like chocolate.

"But Lara, Blossom, Mimiona, and Ekaterina don't really like chocolate! I mean, I know that Amber's-"

"But Alice, how can they NOT like chocolate it's just crazy they don't! It's just so...unbelievable!" Lara said, her eyes bulging out of her head so that it gave her a countenance similar to that of a frog.

"Lara, they don't. They just don't!" Alice said persistently, poring over a vanilla cake recipe. "Hey, how about this one?"

"No, no, no, no. _Why _would we make a vanilla cake?" Lara asked, grabbing the book and turning to the chocolate cake recipe.

"All the judges _like _vanilla cake, that's why!" Alice said, sighing.

"But I don't," Lara said. "Let's make chocolate cake."

"But then we'll definitely lose."

"We'll know in our hearts that we won."

Lily whipped around. "Lara, did you really just say that?"

Lara faced her sheepishly. "...Well, we will!"

Nadia turned to Lara impatiently. "In our hearts isn't good enough, Lara."

"Besides, we have no more chocolate, thanks to _someone!_" Lily said sensibly, glaring at Lara.

"Hmph! Well, fine! Vanilla cake it is!" Lara said in a disappointed voice.

"Okay, Alice and Lara, get to work, time is running, and it won't wait for us! Forty minutes!" Lily said.

Alice jumped. "Time is running? Wait, no! Time, slow down! Wait for me!"

"Enough with this silliness and now let's get to work!" Lily ordered.

"Lily," said Nadia tentatively. "Calm down. We're gonna lose, anyway, so let us girls have some fun."

"Who says we're gonna lose?" demanded Lily.

"I do," Lara and Nadia said at the same time, and grinned. "We do," they said together.

"ARGH! You two are plotting against me or something!" Lily said, her voice slowly rising.

"Crud, she wasn't supposed to figure that out until later?" Lara stage-whispered as she dumped flour into a big bowl.

"Calm down, Lily, and chill. Look, I say that we're gonna lose because, one, this chicken is beyond any repair unless we use magic and that is against the rules. Seeing from your refusal to cheat, I take it that you won't go against the rules either. Plus Dumbledore will know if you do that. And two, we have not enough time to make another dish. We might as well just serve this...chicken...and this...soup... along with the cake," Nadia said logically. "I might be able to repair the chicken a bit, but... the soup... Well, think of something that will work."

"Fine, then. It'll have to do!" Lily muttered. "On with the cake!" She shouted and ran over to help. "Okay, so a cup of sugar..."

"Hurry! The baking time is supposed to take twenty minutes. That means we have less than an fifteen to make it!" Lara said, and the girls hurriedly got to work.

"All right," Lily muttered, staring at the recipe. "Umm, we need eggs-"

"Check!" Lara exclaimed proudly, holding out a carton of eggs with both hands. "How many do you think we need?"

"More than three, less than five," replied Alice promptly.

"Sooo...four?" Lara asked.

Nadia nodded. "That's what the recipe said."

"Well, couldn't you have just said four?" Lara asked.

Alice considered it for a moment, then replied, "I could've, but I wanted to make sure you still knew simple logic."

Lara glared at Alice, who was staring at her with innocent wide eyes. She opened her mouth to say something nasty, but Alice realized what was about to happen, and gave her the "look". The "look" was Alice's secret weapon, and was used only in case of emergencies. It was actually only a puppy face, but anyone who saw it was immediately reminded of a little puppy begging to be petted. Lara sighed, and decided to let the matter drop.

"Oh, thank goodness," Alice said in a relieved tone. "Had you said what I think you would've said, the Glorbs might have come. Glorbs are attracted to ominous presences and negative atmospheres, you know."

Lily raised an eyebrow, but continued reading off of the list.

"Okay, next we need sugar. Where on earth did that measuring cup go?" she muttered. Nadia sprang up from her seat.

"I'll look for it!" she exclaimed, eager to help. "You take care of what's next on the list."

Lily smiled. "Thanks, I appreciate it, but we need that measuring cup for practically everything on that list. Why don't we all look for it?"

At this there was some loud grumbling from Lara, but it was ignored. Alice waltzed off dreamily, saying she was going to go look for Death. The search was taken up energetically, but after a few minutes, the three girls were slightly exasperated and frantic: they were running out of time.

"Oh, come on!" Nadia groaned, dropping into a seat beside the stove. "We've looked almost everywhere a measuring pot might be, and it's not here!" At this point Alice foxtrotted back into the room, holding a very disgruntled Death by her paws.

"Have you checked the strange places?" she asked.

Nadia snorted. "Oh please, where would it-" she was cut off by the sudden emerging of the measuring cup from the freezer. "Why would it be in there?" asked an amazed Nadia.

"That's not the only thing in here, Lara's purse is in here too." Alice said absently, fighting with Death over a stray shrimp that had not been cleaned up, apparently.

"No, Death, that'll make you sick!" Alice cried.

Death hissed, and tried to scratch Alice, which shocked her.

"Death, did the Glorbs get to you?" she exclaimed. Death ran under the table and stared out with his her great yellow eyes. Alice ran into a gloomy corner and began cultivating mushrooms. (A/N: ;D)

"WHAT?" Lara roared, and promptly rescued her purse from its ice-cold prison. "I've been looking for this for days!" she exclaimed.

Lily was getting impatient. "Okay, now can we please get on with the rest of the ingredients?" Without even bothering to wait, she rattled off a long list of ingredients. "Okaynowthatwe'.Didyouguysallgetthat?Okay,'sseehowgoodourmemoryis!"  
"NO!" chorused Nadia and Lara. Even Alice joined in.

Lily crossed her arms and sat back in her chair. "Well, I'm not repeating that. If anyone else wants to, they can."

"Fine!" Lara exclaimed. "Give me the list!" Lily passed the list over to Lara. After one glance, Lara's jaw dropped.

"Lily?"

"Yes?"

"What language is this in?"

"Arabic, why? I thought that it would be good practice."

"Well, pardon me, miss honor student, but not everyone in this world is familiar with the language spoken in Arabia." Lara said through clenched teeth.

Lily sighed. "Well, I guess I have no choice but to read it then. But hang on a minute, I'm thirsty."

* * *

Lily took a drink of milk from a bowl that was conveniently next to her on the floor. Two seconds later, she fell to the floor with a solid thud.

"LILY!" shrieked Nadia. She rushed over and kneeled by Lily. "Omigosh, omigosh, omisgosh, are you all right? What on earth just happened?"

Nobody moved for a minute, before everyone minus Lily (who was unconscious) ran up to Lily, and tried to see what was wrong.

Alice recovered from her fit of depression, walked over, and said, "It must have been something in the milk. Let me see if I can tell what it is." Alice held the bowl up to her eyes and studied it carefully, smelled it, then put it to her lips and drank it.

"Knockout powder. I'm sure of it," she said with a hint of satisfaction.

Lara looked at the bag of "all-purpose flour" that she was holding, one of the few ingredients that she had been able to make out from Lily's breathless speech. The label read "KNOCKOUT POWDER" in large, bold letters.

"Oops..." Lara said apologetically. "Sorry, don't know how I missed that."

Alice looked at Lara in agreement. "Yeah, I don't know either."

Nadia looked suspiciously at Alice. "If it's knockout powder, then why aren't you unconscious?"

Alice laughed. "Oh, that! Well, my radish earrings protect me from that sort of thing."

Lara gaped at her. "You're kidding, right?"

Alice solemnly shook her head.

Lara continued gaping at her. "You have got to get me a pair of those."

"Sorry," Alice told her apologetically."You have to be accepted by the community of WSSFC for one of those."

"What does that stand for?" Lara asked curiously.

"We Support the Society of Flubber Chickens."

Everyone stared and there was an awkward moment of silence.

* * *

Lara was positively fuming as she shattered the silence, "Sirius. It had to be Sirius. That awful, bloody, good for nothing, parasitic, physco, filthy scum off my shoe. He wanted us to lose to badly that he put knockout powder in our kitchenette! AAAAHHHH! I'm gonna murder that ^$%^&(*)#&^" [consider her swearing so much that we would rather not listen]

"Don't worry, Lara, darling. The cuttlefish in his freezer will be attacking him anytime now. Anyways, I finished the cake!" annoucned Alice with a cheerful smile.

"Cuttle...fish? Freezer?" Lara stared at Alice as if she had grown another head. "You finished...the cake?"

Nadia was sitting by a pot on the stove, "I decided that the chicken was good enough to make a sort of Americanized chicken satay. Instead of a creamy peanut sauce, I used walnuts. Luckily there were enough herbs and spices to give it a nice flavor...it kinda-sorta hides the burnt taste."

Lara looked around in a daze. She was utterly befuddled, Lily was still lying on the floor, a gorgeous cake was being plated and decorated by Alice, and the chicken satay was being neatly plated by Nadia. Death was sitting in a corner of the room licking who knew what off the floor.

"I think... I think I've lost my mind..." said Lara faintly. She sat down next to Lily and massaged her temples.

By this time Nadia had moved on to what, in some alternate universe, might have been soup. Wrinkling her nose in disgust, she took the gloppy white liquid and poured it down the drain. No thestral would be threatened with Lily's leftover attemps at cooking. Looking around for what she might use, she grabbed some ciabatta bread that she had found in a cabinet and began to prepare a light toast flavored with crushed garlic, cilantro, and a gently drizzle of honey. Hopefully they would get at least a bit of credit for trying. She glanced around, there was only about ten minutes left to put together whatever she could.

Sighing, Nadia grabbed the leftover ingredients from what might have been their french cooking, and began to stir fry some vegetables together. Alongside the stir fry she quickly created a soft dough in which she stuffed some of the vegetables in. She started to plate the stir fry and placed the small vegetable buns in the center.

"Five minutes left, huh..." Nadia muttered under her breath. She walked over to Lily and Lara.

"OI! Get your lazy arse off the ground right this moment! Thank me, your wonderful savior who actually know how to cook! I turned your complicated (but delicious sounding) French lunch into an Asian one. Except for the cake. Its out of place, but Alice did a smashing job on it!"

Lily remained unconscious while Lara looked at Nadia bewilderingly.

"Nadia? Look... Pretty lights..." Lara said, sounding dazed.

Nadia shook her head, she would be glad when this competition would be over.

_**General Author's note**__: Hey, this was a reallllly long chapter...Not as much Lily/James interaction as we might have liked, but, we promise you toooooooons of fluff for the next chapter! So keep reading, okay? Love you all. _


	12. Chapter 12: And the winner is

_**Mimiona's Disclaimer**__: Ze characters do not belong to ze Confederation of Umbrellas._

_**Blossom's Disclaimer: **__The characters which belong to Ms. Rowling don't belong to the Umbrella Co. Thank you for taking the time to read through these disclaimers; if you don't, that's very well, too. _

_**Mimiona's Note**__: About the disclaimer, I mean no offense to French people. (Yes, that was supposed to be a French accent. Sorry if that was totally lame) I don't have much news for you lovely readers today. Yesterday I stabbed myself with a push pin, and it started bleeding. Ouch. Oh, idea! I have had a sudden urge to learn new songs. Can you guys, just, like, tell me some cool songs, because lately I've been just listening and relistening Evanescence and the Pierces, and I NEED NEW SONGS! SO please give me some :) Oh, and...oh, shoot, I forgot what I was going to say. Crud. Sorry, my bad. Ugh, I hate forgetting what I was going to say. Man! Okay, well, for now, I guess that's all! Review!_

_**Blossom's Note**__: Thank you, readers. We greatly appreciate your interest in our story. Also, most special thanks to Amanda Panda, Rainwrite, littleLaralevin, and Orange-Coyote for your super reviews! They made our day! _

_Enjoy Chapter 12! _

* * *

"I am happy to announce the judges for this competition!" announced Dumbledore with a smile. "Please give a round of applause for Ekaterina from Slytherin, Mimiona from Gryffindor, Amber from Hufflepuff, and Blossom from Ravenclaw!"

There was a loud cheer in the Great Hall, which was transformed into a auditorium-like room. There was a large, brightly lit stage where Lily and James were nervously standing with their food before them on a table. Nearby, also on the stage, were the four judges. Lara was standing next to Lily encouragingly, and Sirius stood by James.

Ekaterina sat dignified in a black and green robe. She had large, dark eyes with long graceful lashes and her wavy, black hair tumbled down to her waist. Her earrings were eye-catching, long and dangling, and her nails were painted black. One thing that was not so obvious by her appearance, however, was her love of the most morbid things. She was particularly fond of Agatha Christie, a Muggle author who wrote murder mysteries. And even though she was seated, one could tell that she was rather small, especially compared to her third-year friend, Mimiona.

Mimiona had a bright, perky face with large hazel eyes. Her blondish-brown was pulled into a neat bun, adding to her cheerful look. She was swaying in her seat, humming to a song, and loudly chewing gum. Once in a while she popped a large bubble. She seemed excited and eager to jump out of her seat anytime. She wore a mischievous smile, which brightened her already radiant face. Most people had the first impression (a wrong impression, mind you) of a sweet, angelic person. She could be sweet, but to some of her friends, particularly Amber, she was an indignant prank-puller.

Amber had a kind look on her face, but one could tell that she was a little nervous being at the center of attention. She HATED too much attention. It was always a bad thing (for her, at least). Her black hair fell loosely to her shoulders. She had a lot of bad habits that she was unsuccessfully trying to fix, and was often very dazed and out of it. She wore green square glasses that seemed to be the laughingstock of Mimiona, who whacked Amber "playfully" (rather, "painfully") on the head. Amber rubbed her head and turned to complain to Blossom.

Blossom smiled warmly at Amber before silently scolding Mimiona. But she laughed in spite of herself as Mimiona mouthed clearly "I love you, too", and the reprimanding was forgotten. Blossom had dark-brown gentle eyes and black hair cascading down to her waist. She was petite, which gave her a cute look, and with a smile of encouragement to Amber, she started was scribbling down notes on a piece of parchment-probably about the appearance of the food presented. (After all, she _was_ in Ravenclaw)

* * *

"And now, the contestants—Lily Evans and James Potter!" Dumbledore announced with a flourish.

There was a roaring cheer from the audience, who was seated facing the stage.

James smiled coolly, but Lily cringed anxiously.

"And now, for the food! James Potter, kindly describe your food," Dumbledore said.

"Er, yes, I made pesto pasta and chocolate chip cookies for this contest. The pesto was made by myself, with my special recipe," James said uncertainly.

There was another roar from one crowd, and, as Lily noticed, most of them were females

"Um, I, uh, made, this, er, cake...!" Lily blurted. She turned to Lara and whispered, "_What_ is this cake? You guys made it? What...?"

Lara nodded slightly and motioned for her to go on.

"And um, this chicken!" Lily giggled nervously. "And this...thing...with veggies and...what is this?...Oh, rice..."

Lara poked her and mouthed, "Fried rice."

"Yes! Fried rice! Ahahaha...And the soup...?" she asked quietly.

"Down the drain..." Lara said, louder than she meant to.

There was a trickle of giggles from the audience.

"Just kidding about the soup!" Lily said, tossing her hair. "Sooo, yeah!"

Dumbledore laughed. "Ah, so, let the judging begin!"

And, with a simple wave of his wand, a plate, a fork, and a glass of water appeared before the four judges. With another wave of his wand, the plates filled up with pesto pasta.

Ekaterina cautiously took a mouthful of the pasta. She liked pasta, but she didn't really expect much from a boy. Her face brightened as she chewed and swallowed. "Mmmm, pretty good," she said, and jotted down some notes.

Next was Mimiona. She was less cautious, as she had just watched Ekaterina like the pasta. "Okay, here goes nothing." She took a bite. "Yum! This is really delicious!" She made a mark on her parchment, and everyone couldn't help but notice that it looked suspiciously like a star. Then she looked expectantly at Amber.

Amber frowned at her plate and mouthed to her friends, "I don't like pasta in general." Grimacing, she took a bite, and her face darkened ever-so-slightly. "It's better than most pastas...but..." she muttered and scribbled down notes.

Blossom smiled fondly and brought her fork to her mouth. "Mmmm...A fresh taste..." She nodded positively and jotted down more notes.

"All the judges, please clear the taste with some water," requested Dumbledore. "Now, the next menu, chocolate-chip cookies." He waved his wand, and the plates were magically cleaned and the pasta was replaced by a cookie.

Ekaterina smiled and nibbled a tiny bit of the cookie. It was not unknown that she preferred vanilla to chocolate.

James watched nervously.

Ekaterina's smile broadened, but she made no comment, simply writing more notes.

Mimiona bit into the cookie, chewed meaningfully, and swallowed. "It's...chocolatey..." She marked at her parchment, and for the looks of it, it seemed to be a giant X next to James' name.

James buried his head in his hands, messing up his already messy hair, and Lily grinned slyly.

Amber bit eagerly into the cookie and as soon as she swallowed said, "That was one amazing cookie! Yums!"

Blossom frowned at the cookie. "Chocolate's not my thing..." she murmured, but nibbled an edge. She was silent as she smoothed her hair and jotted down several notes.

All the judges proceeded to take a sip of water, and the plate filled itself with chicken. Lily watched anxiously, nervously poking Lara.

Ekaterina picked at the chicken. "...I'm a vegetarian," she said finally.

"WHAT! Why wasn't I notified of this...sudden commitment?" Lily shrilled.

"...It's not sudden," commented Ekaterina mildly, but then smiled and added, "But I eat chicken." She took a bite and struggled to keep her dignity as she promptly had a coughing fit.

"Oh, dear Merlin!" mumbled Lara.

"It's...different..." Ekaterina managed.

Mimiona stared at her plate suspiciously. "Is this safe to eat?" she muttered, took a tiny bite, and gagged into her napkin. "YUCK!" she yelled and drained her glass.

Amber looked frightened as she tried to maintain her politeness when she said, "Can I pass?" Blossom poked her gently, and Amber finally took a bite. She chewed, coughed, and spit the chicken out into her napkin. Shaking her head, she said, "Is this burned?" and took a sip of water.

Blossom smiled reassuringly to Lily as she took a bite without complaint. It was noticed, however, that she swallowed with some difficulty. "It's fine," she managed quietly and returned to her notes.

"Alright, now for the fried rice!" Dumbledore announced, and the plates filled up with the steaming rice.

"Oooh, it's rice!" Ekaterina said and took a mouthful. "Mmmmm, this is really good, Lily! A slight contrast to the chicken, don't you think?"

Lily smiled nervously.

Mimiona frowned. "I like rice, a lot, but I've never had it fried..." she said uncertainly, and added quietly, "And I don't know if I can trust your cooking..." She took a bite anyway, and grinned. "Better than I thought!" She made a check mark in her notes.

Amber eyes lit up. She loved rice, be it fried, cooked, or boiled. Heck, she would even eat it raw if there was no other choice. She took a large bite, smiled happily, and jotted down a relay of positive notes.

Blossom looked at the fried rice, sighed, and took a mouthful. "I really don't like fried rice, but I have to say, I am surprised, it tastes pretty good!' she said, returning to her rapidly filling up parchment.

"So, now, for the final dessert! Vanilla cake!" Dumbledore waved his wand magnificently.

Ekaterina smiled. "Did I mention that I love vanilla?" she asked, and eagerly took a mouthful. Her eyes started bulging out as she coughed into the napkin. "Is this baked?" she screamed and gulped down her water.

Lily stared at Lara. "Did you guys bake the cake?" she asked in a shocked voice.

Lara gulped and whispered quite audibly, "Come to think of it, Alice had it done in about two seconds...and I have no memory of it being placed in the oven."

"Urgh!" grunted Lily.

Mimiona eyed the cake nervously. "Um...Must I?" she asked, and received a glare from Amber. "Fine!" she growled, and took the tiniest bite possible. "Well, as far as I can taste, which is, the frosting, it tastes yummy!" She smiled and placed a happy face on her parchment.

Amber cautiously took a small bite, managed to swallow it, and started to scribble furiously onto the parchment.

Blossom couldn't help but hide her distrust in the cake as she took a reasonable mouthful and swallowed promptly without chewing. "Hmm...well, as Mimiona said, the frosting is sweet and that part is good, but the 'cake' part is rather...uncooked," she said, and finished her notes with a flourish.

"Now, let us decide the winners!" exclaimed Dumbledore, and with a wave of his wand, the plates and other utensils disappeared. "Ekaterina has the honor of starting!"

* * *

Ekaterina smiled and announced, "I am proud to designate James Potter as getting my vote in this competition!"

There was a loud roar, much to Lily's irritation.

"I have to admit that Lily's fried rice was delicious, but James' cooking overrides that," Ekaterina explained.

Lily groaned and Lara comforted her gently.

Mimiona smiled and said in her bubbly voice, "I have to say that James' cooking was amazing!"

Lily scowled.

"But, I am proud to say that Lily gets my vote! The frosting was delicious, and that totally decided me!" Mimiona said.

There was a loud cry of cheers from the male audience.

Amber grinned as she explained, "I am extremely surprised that James' pesto pasta actually tasted okay, maybe even good! I have decided that I should slowly be trying some more pasta, especially, James'!"

James smiled, replying, "My pleasure, any time!"

Lily glared at him, and his smile faded.

"So I say that James should get my vote. I agree, however, that Lily's fried rice was delicious!" Amber said, looking apologetically toward Lily.

"Now, the final judge, Blossom, will decide these two seventh-years' fate!" Dumbledore increased the tension between Lily and James.

Blossom started uncertainly. "I was pleased that Lily took the time to make three dishes, contrary to James' two."

There was a loud booing from the girls and a cheer from the boys.

"However, two of Lily's dishes were rather...not edible, and that counted against her. On the other hand, James' pasta was delicious! So I must say that James gets my vote!" Blossom finished.

* * *

"This competition's winner is...James Potter!" proclaimed Dumbledore.

The audience erupted into cheers and boos.

"Nice to compete against you," James said, bringing out his hand to Lily.

Lily glared at him and refused to shake hands with him. "Don't think," she growled menacingly, "that this has improved our relationship-if there ever was such!"

Potter stared after her as she and Lara hurried off of the stage and escaped the Great Hall.

"Oh, geez, oh, Merlin! I knew I should've lost on purpose!" James cried and ran after Lily.


	13. Chapter 13: Emotions and Red Bull

_**Mimiona's Disclaimer**__: We do not own Harry Potter, Red Bull, or Tangled (Totally my fav movie ever!) (I know, reading this disclaimer makes you wonder what the heck this chapter could be about, right?)_

_**Ekaterina's Disclaimer**__: Okay, so today's disclaimer isssssss: We do not own Harry Potter or any characters pertaining to that book that happen to be created by the lovely . We also do not own Red Bull. Thankfully. No offense to those who like it_

_**Amber's Disclaimer**__: For all those other crazy people out there, I have a disclaimer too! We do not own Soul Eater or Ouran High School Host Club, as much as I want to. I'm usually the one that includes anime things…._

_._

_**Ekaterina's note**__: Hiiiiiiii! I'm so happy to be back! I wasn't able to write last chapter due to a five hour long car trip :P Ugh. But now I am back... and will be gone again later... So cruel, life is. Hehe. Yeah, this chapter is comedy and a slightly more emotional one. I'm not good with emotions really...Soooo I know that there was fluff promised for the last chapter, but I guess that just didn't work out, therfore, it will be coming "soooon, but not yet! Trust me pet..." Lols, for anyone who watched Tanged and memorized Mother Knows Best... Hmmm on the note of music, I absolutely ADORE Evanescence (I can't live without it, no matter how many times I listen it never gets old), We Are the Fallen (Similar to Evanescence, but not quit the same), Metric, the Pierces (for those who like Pretty Little Liars, they sang Secret, the opening song), and... hmmm.. A lot of Indian music :P (I looooove Bollywood music), ummm, I listen to Russian, Japanese, Korean, one French song, and one German song. Yeah... So anyways, enjoy the chapter! 3 _

An hour later, Lara knocked on the wardrobe door of their dorm room for around the umpteenth time. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor next to their walk-in closet, which had been modified with magic so that it would be able to hold all of the girls' clothes. Even then, it was a tight fit.

"Lily?" Lara called tiredly. "Will you be all right?"

"Yeess. I think so. I probably will. I mean, I've always gotten over these little obstacles in the past, haven't I? Oh gosh, I'll never be able to face Potter with a straight face ever again."

Lara sighed. "Lily, you'll be fine. Remember that time when you thought you got an "E" in potions? That turned out to be an "O", didn't it? Sirius had charmed it to look like an "E", right? And we all kicked his butt later. Maybe the same will happen with this. Anyways, even if it doesn't, it'll all blow over eventually."

Lily was silent for a moment.

"Lara?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I punch you?"

"WHAT?"

"Can I punch you?"

"Hm...you'll have to give me a moment to think about that. Should I let my best friend, Lily, punch me because she decides to be all depressed over one little defeat from James? Hm...I DON'T THINK SO!" With these words, Lara sprang to her feet and whipped out her wand, yelling, "Alohomora!" The wardrobe door sprang open. Lily gave a little yelp and buried her face in the stuffed bunny she had brought in with her.

Lara looked angrier then Lily ever remembered her in their entire friendship, even angrier than the time Lily had turned her favorite chocolate and her favourite blouse into piles of sludge while trying out a new spell.

"You-" she shouted at Lily, "-are being just ridiculous! I can't believe that this is the Lily that I know and adore. No. Lily, stop this. I know you actually like James but refuse to admit it and so pretend to hate it. Just suck it up and ADMIT IT TO YOURSELF!"

Lily bristled. "That's not true!" she defended herself.

Lara considered this for a moment. "Nope. Reality check, you never look in a mirror when James is around huh? Yep, you never get to see your pretty little cheeks blushing apple red. Or tomato. Which do you prefer?"

Lily had opened her mouth to protest, but now closed it again. Then she seriously considered what Lara had just said.

"Hey-" she began, but Lara silenced her with a wave of her hand.

"No. No talking." Lara said firmly but with a small smile. "Right now, all you need to do is listen. I'm still angry at you."

"But, you haven't even-" Lily tried again, but this time Lara pressed her hand over her mouth. "Listen, love."

"Lily. Listen to me. I love you a lot, I really do. We all do. I know that you feel bad, but you know, this isn't the basis of life. Everything in life isn't a competition for perfection. You are you, don't force yourself to be what you do not want to be! Just... Just LIVE!"

"Ah, I might have said a bit too much... But, you needed that sweetie. Now just kinda stop being a puppet for the perfectionist devil!" she announced with an idea that her words had gone through one ear and out the other. Her hand was on the knob when she heard a very soft voice.

"You're right."

Lara froze and turned Lily was, still holding her little stuffed bunny and smiling slightly.

"What?" Lara croaked.

"You're right." Lily's voice was slightly steadier. "I'm sorry. I really am. I-it's just-you have no idea just how much winning took over in my life. Losing seemed like death. And now that I've lost...it actually isn't that bad. I mean, yeah, it hurts, but not nearly as much as losing a friend. I know that much."

Lara smiled at Lily, then walked over to her and hugged her.

"It's all right now, Lil. You'll be fine. I swear, no matter-"

"LILY!"

What sounded suspiciously like a war cry rang thorughout the entire female Gryffindor dorm. James, shivering and slightly blue, smashed the door open, splintering the who-knows-how-old wood of their mahogany door and making his fist bleed. He did not seem to care and dashed straight for the two hugging girls, knocking Lara away with a violent shove and grabbing Lily by the shoulders. He was followed by Sirius, who was laughing so hard he could barely keep himself from collapsing onto the floor.

"Hey!" said Lara, both angry at the shove and slightly alarmed at James's state of mind.

"ARE YOU OKAY? I'M SO SORRY! I SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE IT! ARGHH!" In James's wild frenzy, he shook Lily back and forth, making her feel quite sick and nauseous. Was the world always so...spinny? she thought. Then she fell unconscious.

"Lily!" James screamed. "Who has done this horrible thing to you? I'll make them pay. I'll knock them senseless. I'll-" BAM. James fell to the floor, unconscious.  
Lara stood over James, holding what looked suspiciously like a frying pan that had a slight dent in it where it had made contact with James's head. She did not take shoving very lightly.

"You won't have to worry about that. I've already knocked him senseless." she told James's body ominously. At this, Sirius gave up any thought of self-control and burst into giant peals of laughter, which practically shook the room.

Lara glowered, "Just when I was about to say that 'no matter what, we all love you, etc' this useless piece of crap had to come in like some maniac on red bull!"

Sirius chocked on his laughter, and if possible, started to laugh even harder as he held up an empty can of Red Bull, and mangaged to cough through his laughter, "You- *giggles* should have *more giggles* seen his face!"

Lara's eyes went wide, "Oh... God Sirius, you didn't! You know what a hyper James is li-"

"LILYLILYLILYLILYLILYLILY!" James popped up from his unconcious state and started chanting Lily's name. She sat up from her unconscious state to see a very happy James.

"AAAAAAAHHHH GET HIM AWAY!" squealed Lily between screams and laughter.

"Lily,Lily,Lily, guesswhat?That'sright!" he said in a much calmer tone. He held out his arms to show how much he loved her.

"Ah... Umm... I..." stammered Lily.

Lara grabbed Sirius's arm, "C'mon... There is no way I am letting this opportunity slide by."

"Ah, are you sure it's safe to leave James like that?" asked Sirius cautiously.

"Oh, I'm sure James won't do anything rash... He knows what I can do," answered Lara breezily.

"Umm No. I was talking about the safety of leaving him there with Evans. She might murder him," was Sirius's only answer.

"Oh. Well, sucks for you, mate," chuckled Lara.

"Yea- Wait. Why me?" asked her confused boyfriend.

"He always said that if he had to die, he would love to die by Lily's hands..."

"So... I loose my best mate and he dies happy? I hate this..."

"Suck it up, Cupcake," smirked Lara.

* * *

"Ummm James?" asked Lily tentatively. It had taken him a while to calm down from his hyper active state and into a relatively somber mood. She hoped he wouldn't go all hyper again because she felt like she was going to simply explode from all the revolving emotions inside her. He rubbed the back of his head and sighed, James felt like he could fly off the Astronomy Tower right now and survive. But that might not be a good idea. Just maybe. Instead he tried to keep it together for Lily, she looked exhausted and hadn't murdered him yet, which gave him a vague idea that something as wrong.

James gave her a sad smile, "I'm sorry Lily. It was wrong of me. I didn't know that you didn't like to cook. I... I really hope that you won't hate me, but I won't blame you if you do. I really like you Lily and will do anything to keep you near me, may you be yelling, smiling, or cursing me. I don't mind any of it because the fact that I can rise every morning with the thought that I can see your sweet face is what keeps me going. What makes me want to fight the darkness in this word. What makes me glad to be alive and me."

He gazed at her wistfully, then gently cupped Lily's face in his palm, "Promise me, Lily. Promise me that no matter what, you won't take stuff like this stupid competition and feel sad. I want you to be happy no matter what. Even if you have to hate me every day of your life, I want you to stay.. well... you."

Lily opened her mouth in surprise, but nothing came out. She wasn't certain of what to say to such words, she had no idea that she could have this kind of impact on some one's life.

"I... I don't-" she started. She could feel tears threatening to overcome her as a wave of mixed emotions, generally she was able to hold any sadness, anger, or emptiness behind a strong facade of happiness, a court mask almost.

But she was starting to find that some people were able to break through this wall, break her mask of indifference and show that she really cared and felt what she did. Her friends- Lara had just made her feel like she was simply a hollow doll living for the sake of getting through life, being perfect, never letting herself enjoy.

Her party planning had been an outlet of free time in the form of stress and time limitations. Violin, it made her feel good to put her emotions into something so that she wouldn't be carring around a burden of sadness, overbearing joy, or arrogance even.

James Potter... She had no idea what the deal was about him. He managed to break down her wall in a matter of minutes, only he could get her so frustrated and annoyed, so elated with his streams of compliments and praise. Only he made her feel uneasy when he reprimanded some sort of behaviour. She didn't know what to think. Both Lily and James knew that when she said 'I hate you' it wasn't meat that way. She knew that he would always be around, that he wouldn't be like Severus, and that Lily didn't mind him as an aquaintance but she did mind him as a constant companion. It was all so confusing.

"Shhh. It's okay. You're probably at a loss for words, that's fine. Whenever you want to talk, I'll be there, okay?" he said softly.

"I...um yeah..." Lily muttered uncomforably. She wasn't good with her own emotions, she could help just about everyone, but once it came down to her, it was sort of like 'boom.'

James leaned in and gave her a light peck on the cheek, "See you at dinner." With those parting words he left an extremely flustered and blushing Lily


	14. Chapter 14: Experimenting with Life?

_**Ekaterina's Disclaimer:**_ _No matter how may time we may dress up as Ms. Rowling or go around waving markers and yelling random spells, no, we do not own the brilliant series. Even in our best dreams. My latest best dream consisted of skateboards and flying. It was really weird. _

_**Blossom's Disclaimer:**_ _Characters that belong to Ms. Rowling don't belong to us (umm...DUH?) But then, on the bright side, characters belonging to Umbrella Co. don't belong to Rowling!_

_**Ekaterina's note: **__Heeeey. Long time since our last chapter, this one is a bit short . sorry. My favorite part in this has to be the Nadia and Alice scene- no it's not a feme-slash... It's just really sweet. We do try to keep a pretty consistent update rate, but sometimes life gets all hectic and full of science tests -_-... Hmph... Haha, but anyyyyyyways, We got some positive feedback on the last chapter, so that made us happy. Much love to the people who reviewed. Or are planning on reviewing. Or just read this because they... just do... We love you all! Thanks for your support! :) _

_**Blossom's note: **__Thank you, all readers, for taking the time and effort to read our fanfiction. We greatly appreciate this! Umm...well, yeah, we have been having some unfortunate science tests in which like half of our class failed. BOOO! And we go to a smarty school too! (Not to brag...^ ^ but we do go to a Highly Gifted school. We being Blossom, Ekaterina, Mimiona, and Amber.) But we didn't fail! YAY! Okay, thanks!_

"Are you sure they'll be alright?" Sirius asked worriedly as he and Lara strolled through the halls of Hogwarts.

"Will you stop being such a worrywart?" Lara said irritably. "Besides, are you really going to be obsessing about James and Lily-well, more like James' safety with Lily-right now?"

Sirius glanced at Lara, then looking apologetic, gently slipped his hand into hers. "Sorry. I won't, promise." He smiled. "Now, it's all about us. You and me-no one else."

Lara brightened considerably. "So, where do you wanna go?"

"I don't care as long as it's with you. Anywhere with you would be awesome," Sirius said truthfully.

Lara smiled. "Does that mean I get to choose where to go? Since we have the day off we can go anywhere."

"Well, don't forget that you're my slave now," Sirius said, smiling teasingly.

Lara frowned and tried to get her hand out of his.

"I order you to keep holding hands with me!" Sirius said, holding on tighter. He smiled as Lara stopped struggling. "Much better, darling. Don't worry. I won't make you do anything too bad."

"Uh huh. Yeah right."

"So, where do you wanna go?" Sirius asked, winking.

"Where ever, _master_," Lara said dryly.

"You don't need to call me master!" Sirius said, obviously not catching the sarcasm.

"Oh, you idiot!" Lara said, bursting into laughter.

"Wha..? What's so funny?" Sirius demanded.

"Nothing..." Lara answered. "Come on, let's go outside!" She ran ahead, dragging Sirius along with her.

_Death~Sardines~Death~Sardines~Death~Sardines~Death~Sardines~Death~Sardines~Death_

"Oh, today is such a bright day..." murmured Alice while looking up at the light clouds floating around the sinking sun like marshmellows around a torch.

Nadia looked up from where she was feeding Death, "Yes, it was a fun day even if we didn't win. Poor Lily, we were awfully pushy now that I think about it..." 

"Tsk. Whatever, at least Remus doesn't have any taskes that he wants us to complete," she added as an afterthought.

"Oh, yeah huh... I wonder if he will still be my slave anyways," Alice mused. 

Nadia snorted, "He already is..." 

"Huuuuuh?" questioned Alice, confused. She held out her hand for Death to lick. 

"Nothing, nothing," she responded with a fleeting smile. They sat there for a while, leaning against a small tree by the lake watching the orange sun slowly sink into the horizon.

_Death~Sardines~Death~Sardines~Death~Sardines~Death~Sardines~Death~Sardines~Death_

"Ahhh, it's such a wonderful day!" Lara said, breathing the sweet spring air deeply.

The two were outside on the field where they usually had Care of Magical Creatures class. But now, since it was only about an hour before sunset, no other student was there. A small, clear pond rippled peacefully as the soft breeze blew, tickling the grass and making the flowers dance.

"The grass is green and the wind is so caressing and the flowers are so beautiful!"

"Oh, but nothing can be as beautiful as you, Lara," Sirius said, smiling. Lara flushed pink.

"Let's sit down there," Lara suggested, pointing to a spot close by the pond.

"I told you: anywhere with you is fine!" Sirius led the way to the designated spot. "Sit down, Lara."

Lara sank into the green grass and faced the crystal smoothness of the pond. "Sirius?" she asked after a moment, "those flowers are so gorgeous, could you...?"

Sirius grinned, standing up. "Of course, my mistress!" He bowed, and made his way to a patch of wildflowers to make a bouquet.

Lara sighed blissfully and lied down onto the fresh spring grass, humming a cheerful tune as she closed her eyes peacefully.

Had it been five minutes? Lara heard a small rustling sound above her. "Sirius...? Back with my flowers?" she asked dreamily, her eyes fluttering open. "AHHHHHHHHHHH!" she shrieked her lungs out as she saw what was facing her.

It was a huge black dog.

"I'm gonna die, oh no! I saw the Grim! I'm gonna DIIE!" she gave the last word considerable emphasis.

"Woof!" the dog barked and seemed to grin. And the grin was so familiar, it was creepy.

"Wait-are you? You are!" Lara exclaimed as the dog growled playfully at a pile of flowers by him. "Sirius! Don't you ever scare me like that! You scared the LIFE out of me!"

Sirius the Dog panted apologetically.

"But the flowers are pretty, gorgeous. How'd you know just what kinds I like?" Lara said, smiling as she held the bouquet up to her nose while gently scratching Sirius the Dog behind the ears.

"Mmmm...they smell so sweet...Huh? What's this...? A...rose?" she looked mildly amused and somewhat impressed. She softly stroke the petals of the single red rose in the center of the bouquet. "Funny, just yesterday I was reading this magazine and it was telling me how different color roses had different meanings...Yellow for friendship..." Her brow furrowed as she tried to remember. "And, oh yeah! Red for love...LOVE?"

Sirius woofed and nuzzled her hand affectionately.

"Don't tell me you knew that before...Or woof it, either!" Lara said, her cheeks slightly pink. Sirius the Dog nodded enthusiastically in a doggy sort of way.

"Oh..." Lara sighed, wanting to avoid the awkward moment. "Uhh...Hey, Sirius? Can I play catch with you?"

Sirius woofed and ran off to look for a stick.

Looking around to make sure he was gone, Lara sighed and fingered the rose. Moving it delicately to the side, she called loudly, "PADFOOOOT!"

There was a loud bark and a thundering of steps as Sirius returned with a wooden branch firmly in his mouth. He deposited it at Lara's feet.

"YUCK! It's completely covered in dog slobber!" Lara said, holding up the stick with two fingers.

Sirius sighed, bringing his head down.

"Um, it's fine! Go fetch!" Lara said, throwing the stick as far as she could.

Woofing cheerfully, Sirius the Dog bounded after it.

_Death~Sardines~Death~Sardines~Death~Sardines~Death~Sardines~Death~Sardines~Death_

Lily made her way down to the Great Hall for dinner. With a sigh and an attempt to compose herself, she walked into the Hall hoping that she could pass by unnoticed. As she sat down by the Gryffindor table, she kept her eyes lowered to avoid the sympathetic glances tossed at her.

"Lily, Lily, over here!"

She looked up blearily, "Huh?"

James beamed at her cheerfully, he had crashed in the common room after talking to her. She looked around hopefully for her friends and sighed when she saw that they were not around, cautiously she went to join James and Remus, along with a couple of other seventh years.

"Um, hi..." she said awkwardly.

"Lily! Glad you could join us," said Remus with a smile. James had not spoken a word since he had stumbled into the common room on a sugar hype (the only way he had managed to fly up the girls dormitory was because his energy level was such). Remus was hoping that they had at least gotten a bit closer in the time they had been alone.

"Ah, uh, ye-ah..." she answered with a small smile. "So... where's Sirius?"

"Probably snogging Lara senseless," was the prompt response. An awkward silence followed.

"Ah, so... what do you guys have planned for summer?" Lily said, taking a stab at conversation.

*snort* "Lily, love, is that really a question? We plan on kidnapping you and those lovely comrades of yours then crashing on the beach!" laughed James.

"Yep, you are free, right?" added Remus as an afterthought.

"Haha, yeah! That would be awesome! I would really enjoy that," Lily cried, her eyes sparkling. She loved the beach with a passion, but whenever she went, Lily was generally accompanied by Petunia and her...well rounded boyfriend. That pretty much left her on her own to fend off the boys who tried to hit on her with cheesy pick up lines.

"Maybe this time I can actually have fun..." she added dreamily. Ah, she would kill for a day at the beach without being pestered. The boys blinked at her in confusion.

"Erm... Yeah... I guess, well, that's great!" said James enthusiastically while blushing.

Remus coughed in order to hide a chuckle, "Yeah, I'm glad that you can make it, Lily."

"Yeah! And we can make sand castles, dig for sand crabs, play with beach balls, play beach volley ball- OOOOHHH and maybe Nadia can make us a picnic basket! *gasp* James, you help! I didn't get to taste your food after the competition!" Lily rambled. Remus started and choked on his food.

"Ah, Lily... Are you-" he started.

"-Feeling alright?" finished frightened looking James. The two looked at her with expressions akin to fear, or rather a feeling of uneasiness at this show of uncharacteristic happiness.

"OF COURSE I'M ALRIGHT! Whatever made you think otherwise?" Lily gave a hearty laugh and whacked James on the back. "HAHAHA. I'm totally fiiiiiiine!"

"Mate, I think... I think we need to get her to Madam Pomfery," whispered Remus in an undertone to James. "She is seriously starting to freak me out. Make her stop! Please. If you care for my sanity as well as hers." Now there was a tone of desperation in his voice.

"AHAHAHAHA! Yeah, I want to have tonnnnnns of fun!" she continued. At that moment, Alice and Nadia walked in, Death in tow. They turned and looked at Lily, who by now, had attracted a good amount of curious stares.

"Lily Darling?" called out Alice across the hall while Nadia started into a fit of giggles. "I think that when Lara said to 'live a little,' she meant be... normal. Not act like some sort of freaky terrorist. See, the first years are frightened. Tsk. The nargles are swarming around your head, darling, you really need to calm down..."

Lily blushed, "I... I was acting normal! I just, just... got very enthusiastic! Yeah. that's it! Enthusiastic... Okay... Fine, you got me- I was experimenting with the whole living thing that Lara lectured me about... I want to try to liveeeeeeee, you know?"

James and Remus looked at her sympathetically.

"I think she's lost it," sighed Remus.

"Nonsense!" Nadia retorted, looking astonished. "You _think_ she's lost it? I _know_ she's lost it!"

"Yep. Must have been the stress, poor thing," continued James with a sad shake of his head.

Lily slumped in her seat with a pout, "It's not fair!"

"Sorry love, life is a beeeeeeooooooooccccchhhhh and there is nuthin' you can do 'bout it," smirked James.

"Shut your trap, Potter."

"Ah, that's more like it!" James exclaimed happily. He jumped up and put his arm around the still seated Lily then kissed the top of her head."See you later, then!"

Lily sat blinking for a moment then stood up with a loud torrent of curses and chased after her ever loving tormentor/best enemy _(A/N: best enemy as in they know each other best but one or the other "hates" the other, not like they both are good at hating each other)_


	15. Chapter 15: Of Flowers and Nargles

**Chapter 15**

_**Ekaterina's Disclaimer: **__Sigh... Why, why can't we own the Harry Potter series? Oh yeah, the same reason that we cannot own half the world :P haha..._

_**Blossom's Disclaimer: **__Well, I never could will my sisters to give me their stuff, and somehow I don't think I will ever be able to will Rowling to give me the Harry Potter series either. _

_**Ekaterina's Note: **__Heya! So how was the last chapter? :) I found all the character interactions to be quite a nice change from the usual chaos and humor. It was a pleasant surprise that it worked out. We hope you liked it :D. OH. If our updates are slightly spaced out, do forgive us, we have finals comin' up and it's suuuuper important that we score well on them. If we don't... well, in short- we're screwed. Yep. But, on a happier note, our story has a lot more views now and it makes us absolutely escatic. Or at least me. ^^_

_**Blossom's Note:**__ It's not just Ekaterina who is delighted with reviews. All of us are. Or at least Ekaterina and me. Hehe! Thanks, readers!_

_Love you all, Umbrella Co. /J\_

"Sirius!" Lara called. "No more fetch! Please? It's extremely tiring!" She did look tired. Her hair was rather tangled and her hands were grimy with dog saliva and dirt.

Sirius whined but reluctantly dropped the branch in his mouth.

"Now can you please turn back into human? Please? I wanna see boyfriend Sirius again. I miss him," Lara said without thinking.

In a moment, Sirius the Dog was gone and replaced by Sirius the Human. "You missed me?" he asked eagerly, spitting out specks of dust and dirt from his mouth.

"Huh? Err...Let's go eat!" Lara said, smiling awkwardly.

"Lara, answer me! It's an order!" Sirius said, winking.

"Ugh! Fine, you always make things difficult, huh? Yes, I did miss you in a regular form of a human and not a dog that so resembles the Grim it freaked me out and almost took my life! YES!" Lara bellowed and tossed her hair indignantly. "Merlin!"

Sirius chuckled. "I know what James means now," he said.

"What do you mean?" Lara asked, curiosity overtaking her anger.

"Huh? Do you really want to know? I think you'll be mad if I tell you..." Sirius said thoughtfully, then snapped his fingers. "I got it! I order you to not get mad when I tell you...or frustrated, okay?"

Lara gave a curt nod. "Fine, just tell me!"

"Well you know he always says that Lily looks cute when she's mad? Well I-"

"SO YOU AGREE THAT LILY LOOKS CUTE WHEN SHE'S ANGRY? ARE YOU INSANE?" Lara screeched, her cheeks a brilliant red that resembled the setting sun.

"Whoa, chill girl! And obey my orders!" Sirius said, laughing even harder.

"I'm not mad! Or frustrated! I'm enraged and baffled! I _am _obeying your rules...technically!" Lara said, glaring at Sirius.

Sirius smiled. "And that wasn't what I meant, you know. I meant that I think _you're_ cute when you're mad!"

"Whaaa...?" It took a moment for that to register. "Wait, what? You think I'm...?" Lara's face looked like she might explode.

"Well, yes. And don't get mad!" Sirius said, exploding in chuckles.

"UGHHH, YOU!" Lara giggled in spite of herself. "Okay, then, let's go...I'm hungry."

"You are?" Sirius asked as his stomach grumbled loudly. "Heh heh I must be hungry, too! Ohh, we must have missed dinner!"

"Bleh, Sirius! I told you we should stop playing and go!" she whined, frowning.

"It's okay. We'll visit the kitchen and the house elves should serve us well." He smiled at the thought. "C'mon!" He grabbed Lara and pulled.

"Are you sure we can do that?" Lara yelled as she got dragged along toward the school towers.

"No worries! I go there all the time!" Sirius responded.

"And you're still hungry every moment of your life?"

"...Well...I'm a growing boy!" Sirius responded indignantly.

"Uh-huh. And I'm a gorgeous princess locked in a tower and waiting for a handsome prince to come by and marry me. Uh-huh," Lara said dryly.

"Really?" Sirius' eyes were wide. "Okay, then, I'm your Prince Charming!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Oh, Merlin!" Lara said, rolling her eyes, exasperated.

"Come here, my Princess Lara!" Sirius reached out and swept a startled Lara into his arms and lifted her easily.

"Hey, you!" Lara said, laughing.

And neither of them noticed that Lara hadn't struggled at all-without Sirius' orders.

* * *

Ugh. Slaves... Why did she have to be a slave to the slimy git next to her? It was like dangling a flame over kerosene, the possibility of an explosion that might wreck the castle.

"...Oi... James... Where the heck are we going?" Lily grumbled. There was an extremely dark aura surrounding her head but James, too caught up in his happy mood didn't notice.

His cheeks flushed a bit, "Oh, um, you see. I decorated the Room of Requirement so that maybe you can have some fun... I .. I wasn't entirely sure what you like but I tried my best." He looked so happy, like a five year old with big, irresistible puppy eyes. Too bad they didn't work on Lily.

"Oh... Okay..." she responded uncertainly.

"Oh, we're here," James said awkwardly, stating the obvious.

"Yeah," Lily nodded. "Um, so, what's next?"

"Err...Let's go in...?" James asked tentatively.

"Uh, sure, I guess," Lily responded, wanting desperately to be somewhere else.

James opened the door of the Room of Requirement.

* * *

"Shhh! Geez, will you be quiet! If you want to see where they're going, be quiet, okay?" Remus said, quickly ducking into an empty classroom and pulling Alice in with him.

"OW! You pulled my hair!" Alice yelled.

"Oh. Sorry." Remus looked apologetic as he quickly removed his hand from Alice's shoulder.

"Okay, we should go back out now!" Alice said. "We don't wanna miss Lily and James. Oooh! I wonder what they're up to!"

"But don't you think we're kinda invading their privacy?" he asked.

"Huh? How?" Alice shrugged and tip-toed out of the classroom in a ballet twirl to continue following Lily and James.

Sighing, Remus reluctantly left the classroom after her.

Lily gasped. It was a garden.

Right in the middle of the huge room was a lovely cream-colored bench, which was surrounded by a ring of beautiful lilies. Along with lilies, there were violets, bluebells, daisies, roses, tulips, and ferns all planted carefully. Vines hung from the ceiling, and butterflies fluttered around, decorating the air with flashes of color.

There were all sorts of trees, cherry trees with beautiful blossoms floating down, fir trees, oak, maple, and pine trees smelling freshly of sweet pine. The floor was carpeted with soft green grass. The walls were brick and covered with ivy and wild growing blossoms. Moonlight shone in gently from three windows.

The room was pleasantly scented with a mingle of the flowers' smells. Leading to the bench was a winding road, paved in cobblestone and lined with old fashioned clock towers, each with messages in them. The road was sprinkled with delicate rose petals, and a bouquet rested on the bench.

"Oh, James! It's gorgeous!" Lily exclaimed, beaming with delight.

"Yeah, oh, okay. Well the thing is, I wanted to spend some time with you, so I prepared this place, and um, yeah..." James managed, his face scarlet even in the moonlight. "Will you come with me to the bench?" he asked nervously.

Lily nodded and followed him to the bench. Sitting down, she inhaled deeply. "Mmmm...It's wondrous!" she said, looking around again. "Lilies...they're beautiful!"

James shook his head. "Nothing compares to you. No, not even these flowers," he said, handing Lily the bouquet. "Here. I want you to have this. I made it...Think of it as my heart to you."

Lily received the bouquet. She could see it was carefully, gently made from the most perfect lilies. "James! I don't know what to say! How did you know all my favorite flowers? It's just simply...oh, magical!"

James stared unblinkingly at Lily, who was bathed gently in moonlight. "Lily, you look beautiful in moonlight." He reached out and gently fingered a strand of her auburn hair.

Lily looked at James. He was dressed so nicely, come to see, and she could see that he had attempted to smooth down his hair.

"Lily? Will you um, hold hands with me?" James asked cautiously.

Lily blinked. "Is that an order?" she asked.

"No, no, of course not. I'm just asking. It's just, I'd be so-" He stopped as Lily gently slipped her hand into his.

* * *

"Hurry! Come on, let's go!" Alice said excitedly. "We'll lose them!"

"Ah, they went into the Room of Requirement. I believe that James mentioned something about having set up a botanical garden-" Remus stopped when he saw Alice's expression, her eyes were large and sparkly.

"Ooooh, I love flowers, there are so many faeries, you know..." she hinted.

"Um, I guess that as long as we don't interrupt them it should be alright..." said Remus, his cheeks were tinted a light pink. "But you've got to be quiet once we're in there, you know. They shouldn't know we are in there with them. Okay?"

"Yaaaay! lalalalalal laaaaa!" Alice skipped along the hall singing and giggling.

"Ah... so... where is Nadia?" questioned Remus.

"Umm... OH. she went off with Death to find sardines in the Great Lake!" she exclaimed confidently.

"Err. Alice. I don't think there are sardines in the lake..."

"Meh. The merfolk will find them for sure," she said in a carefree way. Alice began to twirl around until Remus caught her and reminded the said girl of their secretive mission. The two crept along slowly and waited until Lily and James had entered the Room of Requirement and probably moved on from the door then entered as well, holding their breaths.

"Oh..." Alice gasped in wonder at the large room, she fit in well, like a fairy bought to her homeland of magical flowers. Remus stood, slightly awestruck, as he watched Alice's face soften as she bent down to smell some roses then slowly move away to look at a couple of butterflies lazily fluttering.

"Sort of like Alice in Wonderland..." he muttered to himself. "Except cuter."

Alice turned around and gave him a beautiful smile, not her usual out-of-it-I-am-in-dreamworld smile, but a real, soft smile.

"Thank you for bringing me here, Remus. I really adore flowers and gardens, you see."

"No problem, I wanted to see it too..." he answered. There was a light companionable silence for a few moments.

"Oh! Our mission!" Alice ran down the cobblestone path in little leaps until the bench came into view. At that point she crept behind a large bush right under a low tree from where she beckoned for Remus to join her. The two sat watching Lily and James converse, the couple on the bench had their hands entwined and James was blushing furiously.

"It's a bit reversed, no?" Alice noted thoughtfully.

"What is?"

"The fact that generally the girls blush when they see James, but here is Lily sitting normally and James uncertain of what to say or do..." she continued.

After a small chuckle Remus responded, "Yeah... sometimes the roles are reverse, I guess."

Alice contented herself with leaning against the tree and watching the multitudes of flowers until she looked above them. Then she looked with a more concentrated gaze until she was frowning.

"Er, Alice, why are you starting at the tree?" Remus asked.

"Why is there mistletoe when it's not even Christmas?"

"... Oh," he wasn't sure how to react. He looked up and quickly brought his gaze back to Lily and James.

"Did you know that mistletoe contains nargles which are terrible for the health of one's sanity, I could lose my sanity from sitting under this, but then again it also has healing properties for some illnesses so is could be curing some illness that I have but don't know about. Although there are some-" she was cut off when the space between her and Remus closed up and all she could see was Remus. "Remus...?"

"Really?" Remus' voice was a whisper, his breath was soft. "All I remember is that people kiss under mistletoe." He looked into Alice's eyes gently and came closer.

"...Oh..." Alice, said, her eyes closing delicately as Remus leaned in.


	16. Chapter 16: Alice and Death

_**Mimiona's Disclaimer**__: "_Imperio_!" I say, pointing my wand at JK Rowling. "Give me the ownership of your characters! I want all of them! Even Winky!" The woman on the other side of my wand shakes her head, and said, "I created the Imperious curse. I can easily resist it. And now." Here she pauses, reaching down to pull out her wand. She lifts her wand and points it at me. "_Imperio_." My mind turns off and I am ready to follow her every command. A random voice in the back of my mind tells me not to listen to her, to resist her, but I quickly shut it out and turn my attention to the author. "You will never again attempt to steal my characters, especially not using my spells! Now stop bothering me." I nod weakly and walk out of her lovely apartment. Once out of the apartment, I feel the curse lift off me, and what just happened crashes down upon me. I sprint to my apartment, and plop down on my bed. Never again will I attempt to steal the lovely Harry Potter characters. Never again will I pretend that I own them, and I know in my heart that I never will. EVER!_

_**Blossom's Disclaimer: **__Basically, what Mimiona means is that Rowling's characters don't belong to us, and we won't try to steal it. _

_**Ekaterina's Note:**_ _Heeeeeyyyy! Lovely to be writing again, even though we have finals, we have no homework. Hehe... Anyways, I was shown this new band called Birthday Massacre and it is soooo good. If you are into sorta, not really, dark music, that is :) Yeah, so anyhow, I wanted to do a sad, angsty songfic for Lily/Harry to We are the Fallen's "Sleep well my Angel" but I don't really know, it might be too depressing or stupid :( . Love you all, if you know any awesome music, tell us- any language will do :). OH. Evanescence is touring again. Not near me, but heck, the news made my week. You have no idea how many mushrooms were cultivated in the making of this chapter :(_

_**Mimiona's Note!: **__Well, there certainly are a LOT of notes that you have to read before finally getting to the chapter, but I felt that I needed to include a note of my own. I haven't written any note or disclaimer in a while, and my most sincerest apologies. I hope you missed me. Also, today I got my grade from the science essay test (I'm taking physics, and my teacher is...strange...) and I got a 42 out of 45! For me, in science, that's like an all-time-record! Yay! And, as you probably know, in eighth grade, you have to take CSTs for _all _your academic classes. That means, along with the normal Language Arts and Mathematics, we have to take 6th grade, 7th grade, and 8th grade history, and physics! AAAA! I'm gonna DIE! But anyway, enjoy the chapter!_

_**Amber's Turn!:**_ _Okay, well I know I don't write these very often, and I like it that way, because it's just more like me. BUT! Everybody else got their own little cozy space, and I thought, what the heck, I shall claim my rightful territory too. Anyways, what I want to say is, thanks to all you people who have read our first fanfic up until now and liked it enough to not throw squishy little tomatoes. I don't know about the other authors, but I __certainly appreciate. Give yourself a little pat on the back! *Gives you an extra pat just in case ya need it* And I agree with Ekaterina. Many mushrooms were grown in the process of making this chapter._

_**Blossom's Note:**_ _Hello! I don't really read manga (I always end up not understanding it because I _

_don't view the artwork; I only read) or listen to American music. Or make up random scenes with Rowling and her curses. I just want to apologize for the rather long notes and/or disclaimers my fellow authors have, and also thank our awesome readers! Please enjoy and review!_

Chapter 16

Lily woke up the next morning definitely feeling refreshed. The garden the night before had been absolutely gorgeous, leaving her feeling happy and a little dazed. She turned to face the bouquet lying on her dresser next to her, the smell of which had infiltrated her dreams, causing her to sleep with a smile.

Lily wanted to spend another day doing nothing, but today, school resumed and it should be a regular studying day. With a little sigh she got up and shook Lara and Nadia awake, both who had seemed to had a wonderful previous day.

"Huh? Morning already?" Nadia shook herself awake. She sleepily grabbed her clothes. "Bleh!"

Lara got up and smiled. "Hehe..." she said dazedly.

"Are you alright?" Lily asked, worried of her mental health.

"Eh? Oh, um, yeah! Just thinking of yesterday..." Her smile broadened. "Hey! What's our first class today?"

"History of Magic," Nadia answered, brushing through her miserably tangled hair.

"Oh. So I guess, basically free period. Study hall in Lily's case?" continued Lara in amusement. However, Lily was not listening, but staring into space with an extraordinarily blank expression.

"Lily? Earth to Lily!" Nadia said, waving a hand in front of her face.

"Huuuuuhhhh?" she mumbled slowly. Her eyes had a slight vague look to them, and she had absentmindedly worn Alice's clothes instead of hers. And the most bizarre ones at that, too. Alice came over so often that they had a little section for her clothes. Lily had chosen the long frilly purple dress with dancing hippogriffs that had been enchanted to sing "God Rest Ye Hippogriffs" whenever it detected the substance Alice called "whoofle", which she claimed marked the presence of a Drooling Darbingle. The louder it sang, the closer it was. Unfortunately, Lily found out through an unfortunate event (which she does NOT want to talk about, mind you) that "whoofle" was actually ink, which was extremely common in Hogwarts and therefore, the dress had been prohibited from being worn during class hours.

"Lily," Nadia began in a very amused tone, " I don't think you want to wear that to class, do you? If you do, then I have underestimated your creativity for style for several years."

Lily looked down, focused her glassy stare, and saw what she was wearing for the first time. "Ack!" she said, slightly louder than she meant for it to come out. She quickly changed into her robes.

"Much better." Nadia grinned at Lily. "I thought we had a second Alice for a second there. Don't know if I could handle that. She's wonderful. Wonderful enough so that we don't need another."

"Speaking of Alice, where is she?" Lily asked, grabbing her bag and books. Nadia's forehead creased slightly.

"Well, you see, I think something might be wrong with her. She seemed kinda...out of it...earlier. I had to drag her to bed -literally! Her feet weren't working. And, come to think of it, her cheeks seemed pinker than usual. This morning I spotted her back in our dorm, talking to Death, who looked like he hadn't gotten sleep the whole night. He's not the most polite cat. If he's sleepy, he sleeps. I'm guessing Alice shook him awake every time he did."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Should we go get her, or...?" But Nadia was shaking her head.

"I think it's better to leave her the way she is." Nadia told Lily in an exhausted tone. "Let's go." They passed by Nadia's room, filled with quiet muttering and an occasional yowl. Nadia squeezed her eyes shut tight.

"I'm so sorry, Death." she murmured. "I'll get you a big bag of sardines after this. I promise. It's for the sake of a friend who appears to have lost her mind."

Lily looked at her sympathetically, then took hold of Nadia's hand to show her how she felt. This simple action brought back a sudden flashback of yesterday and she reddened, turning away quickly in the hopes that Nadia wouldn't notice. Nadia did, however notice, but sighed and ignored it. All of her friends seemed to have experienced stressful romantic days past. Now she was not too sure what to do with her unresponsive bumbling friends.

* * *

Five minutes later, a very exhausted Lily and a Nadia that had a lot on her mind burst into the practically History of Magic classroom. They were far too early. Professor Binns was so startled he dropped his notes and tried unsuccessfully to pick them up, as his aching back prevented him from doing so.

Nadia rushed over, mumbling an apology.

"It's quite all right, Miss Nadia. But I must say, it appears you have much on your mind." He glanced over at Lily, peering at her from underneath his wide rimmed glasses. Nadia snorted, then realized she was in the presence of a teacher.

"You really have no idea." Nadia said gloomily. "I've got a friend that won't admit that she likes someone. She moped around for, oh, I don't know now, five years?"

At this point she became slightly hysterical. "And then all of a sudden she starts agreeing with us. Think in my shoes. I feel like I've wasted five years of my life!"

"Now, now," the professor began nervously. "There's no need..." But Nadia wasn't listening, just continued loudly ranting.

At this point, students were filing into the room, and Lily had begun to show signs of interest. Nadia showed no signs of stopping. Lily allowed herself a very small smile. She knew Nadia's ways well enough. And she's going to break into hysterical laughter right about...now.

Like on cue, Nadia begin to giggle, high pitched nervous laughs that gave everyone in the room, including the dead professor, goosebumps.

"MY FRIEND ALICE IS IN WONDERLAND TALKING TO DEATH!" she screamed. Professor Binns looked around desperately for help. When none was offered (though plenty of sympathetic looks were) he sighed, took a sheet of paper and began scribbling on it. After a momentary silence, he handed the sheet of paper to Nadia.

"Take this to Madam Pomfrey. She'll know how to fix this...er..._problem_ of yours. And Miss Evans? Would you care to escort your friend to the hospital wing?"

"Yes, Professor. Certainly," Lily answered.

"LALALA! ALICE TALKS TO DEATH! LALA-"

"Nadia, will you-!"

"Will I what? Go louder? Sure!" Nadia inhaled deeply, then began a loud stream of words, "ALICE, I KNOW YOU NEED TO DISCUSS YOUR PROBLEMS NOT WITH YOUR BEST FRIENDS BUT WITH A BLOODY, ADORABLE, AMAZING CAT, AND YOU KNOW WHAT? DON'T FREAKING BLAME YOU! WE ALL SUCK AND HAVE MISERABLE LIVES! AND LILY LIKES POTT-" at this point Lily cast a silencing spell on the still shouting Nadia, turning scarlet.

"Let's get out of here!" she mumbled as other students, by misunderstanding, thought Lily had gotten onto drugs. Their innocent Lily, doing such things?

Nadia was still opening her mouth, but nothing but air came out. Lily's face burned in the obvious silence, in which other students gaped at the girls. With a nervous smile she hurriedly ushered Nadia out the door- the laughing witch now had tears from her hysterical laughter streaming down her face.

The two arrived at the door of the infirmary a moment later, Lily barely clinging to her sanity. "Madam Pomfrey? Are you there?" she called, forcing Nadia down on the bed. Nadia, who was distracted, went down without a fight.

The nurse walked in through the door of her office, and into the main hospital wing. "Yes, dears? How may I- Oh Merlin, what happened?" she interrupted herself when she saw Nadia, who was laying on the bed, shaking in a silent fit of laughter with tears falling.

"I am not quite sure, Madam."

Madam Pomfrey rushed up to the shaking girl, and put her hand on Nadia's forehead. "Well, she is a bit warm, but she seems fine. What on earth made her laugh like this?"

Lily stifled a giggle. "Well, this morning she seemed like she had a lot on her mind, and when Professor asked her about it, she kind of...burst. I had to _silencio_ her."

"Yes, I could tell. But, well, she is a bit...odd, now." She gazed at Nadia with a thoughtful expression.

_And you call yourself a nurse? I could have told you that with my eyes shut! _Lily thought to herself, before saying, "Yes, I had realized that. But, what do you think we should do?"

Madam Pomfrey sighed. "I'm sure the best thing would be sleep. I would say laughter is the best medicine, but it seems that laughter is what made her strange in the first place. I suggest sleep."

Lily nodded, and pointed her wand at Nadia, murmuring, "_Petrificus Totalus_." Nadia froze, her eyes blinking rapidly, and her smile instantly vanishing. She glared at Lily while Madam Pomfrey walked back to her office to find the right type of medicine to calm the poor hysterical girl down.

"Ah, I'm really sorry Nadia! But it just wouldn't be good for any of us if you ran around getting hysterical when you got nervous. Seriously, did you see Remus's face, he was brick red. Poppy red! Blood red! Tomato red! Straw-" she was cut off by Nadia's best death chill glare that sent even professors into silence.

"Oh... yeah... Anyhow, I think something happened between Alice and him, so after class I will question Remus. Ah! Lara and Sirius are going off to stroll the castle this afternoon and Alice seems rather preoccupied, so you can come with me if you calm down." she declared.

Nadia's eyes widened and then softened. She seemed to sigh, "_Sigh, why do all of my dear innocent friends have to go and... grow up. Love people... Urgh, it makes life a hell of a lot harder... They so would not survive a moment without me..."_

"Good Nadia. Sleep well, my angel! Oh, and thanks a lot, now half the class thinks I'm high on pot..." With that, Lily skipped out of the room. Then right back in. "Madam Pomfrey?"

"Yes?" the nurse asked, startled by Lily's strange actions.

"How much time did this take? I hope I didn't miss too much of History of Magic."

"Not much time, dear. You should head back right now."

"Yes," Lily giggled, and rushed to the door.

* * *

Lily spent the entire class half her mind on Remus Lupin. Of course, she was paying attention to Professor Binn's dull lecture, but that didn't change the fact that she was staring intensely at Lupin. He quivered nervously under her laser like stare, although he was not facing her it was obvious that she was scheming something that included him. James looked from Remus to Lily with a slightly curious, yet envious expression on his face, unsure about what was going on between them.

As soon as class ended, Remus pushed his belongings into his book bag, and rushed out, with Lily on his tail. He had some pretty good idea about what she wanted, seeing as she was sure to notice that Alice was missing at breakfast and History of Magic.

Speaking of which, what happened to Nadia at the beginning of the class? Remus had no idea, and decided to ask Lily. However, first he would have to gain up the nerves to ask her.

Drawing a deep breath he stopped suddenly and Lily crashed into him. "Woah! Remus, don't-"

"Lily," Remus interrupted, "what in the world was up with Nadia at History of Magic? I mean, I'm aware that she has generally unhealthy morbid tendencies, but this was more frightening than her usual death glares and threatening statements. She scares me most when she isn't trying..." he said, rather matter-of-factly.

"Ah, er...You don't want to know. But, anyhoo, that is most definitely not the issue on hand here! I have no idea what the heck you did to Alice (I blush at the possibilities!) but she is... well, she camped in our house common room (don't ask how she got in. Slytherins, no matter how ditsy, can be a bit frightening) talking to and looking like Death itself!" she exclaimed, but at Remus's confused look, she added, "No, she did not look like a cat, I meant death itself, like, you know, what happens when you die? Seriously Remus, where is your moral conduct! I never thought I'd see the day when Alice, our own lovely out-of-it-"

"Lily, shut up! And, what do you mean, I don't wanna know what happened with Nadia? She's my slave, I have to know things like that! If you are so persistent in covering it up, I might as well order Nadia to tell me. However, I happen to know that you are not on pot, and hmmm... I don't know... that situation sounds an awful lot like you and James. And, I didn't do anything to Alice...bad, that is. As a matter of fact, she blushed and stammered a good night then hugged me and ran. And as for where my moral conduct is, I dumped it when you were not looking. And I definitely can't see any in you! You bothered me the entire time in History of Magic, so much that I could hardly concentrate at all! Now, If you won't answer my question, then I most certainly will not answer yours!"

Lily smiled. "Fine, then. Nadia had an emotional breakdown, in a good way. Currently, she is sleeping in a bed, and is doing fine. Now, what did you do to Alice?"

"Wait, how can an emotional breakdown be good? And what bed is she sleeping in? The hospital wing?"

"Wow, Remus. I thought you were smarter than that. You should know that Nadia would only sleep on a death bed (_A/N: are the death jokes getting a bit too much?_). It was a good emotional break down because she finally got rid of her feelings. You see, Nadia is extraordinarily calm and peaceful until she suddenly explodes one day. It rarely happens, but when it does it's better not to be there. We barely avoided one today, a bit more and she might have exploded the the room. That would be bad. Just maybe."

"Oh, so she's fine."

"Yep, you could say that! So...? What did you do to Alice?"

"Nothing! And, wait, what pages did we have to read for History of Magic as homework? He spoke too quietly, I couldn't catch it."

"Tsk, tsk, Remus. You're avoiding the inevitable. I want to know what's up with you and Alice, though I have a pretty good idea already." Here Lily grinned evilly.

"I didn't do anything to Alice! I mean it!"

"I can tell you're lying," Lily sang. "Remus, you're blushing. I can tell that you're lying. Did you...hug her?" she leaned closer to Remus with an mischievous smile on her face. "Did you...kiss her?" she asked, her breath tickling his ear.

At that moment James happened to be passing by, panting from running to find Remus and Lily. What he way was not very pleasant, Lily (still with her small evil smile) standing unfathomably close to Remus, Remus blushing, and the word 'kiss' slowly floated down to his ears. That pulled him back. He analyzed the situation then ran to a wall and started to bang his head.

"I am a hallucinating idiot, I am a hallucinating idiot..."

Lily leaned closer to Remus. "Well?" she whispered.

Remus looked left and right, trying to find an escape. Finding none, he slowly nodded.

Lily gasped with joy. "Yes!" she sang. "Yes I knew it! I knew it!" She sprang back from Remus and twirled a couple times, dancing to her own geniusness.

Lily stopped when when she saw James, hitting his head against the wall, yelling, "I am a hallucinating idiot. Lily is not a player, she loves no one at all. But then again, she hates me and can stand Remus. AHHHHHHHH I HATE MY LIFE!"

"James? What are you doing?" Lily asked as she cautiously approached James.

James took deep breath and composed himself, "I am the world's biggest idiot and this will probably get me murdered with only Sirius and Remus to plan my funeral. My life can not get any suckier than this," he murmured to himself. With those words, he ran to Lily and scooped up her up in a princess carry.

"Do not fear, Lily, love! I have rescued you! I will protect you from all evil and stupid courtiers. AHHHHHHHHH!" he cried hysterically, by the end he had a sort of squeaky battle cry. Lily squealed with terror and then with anger as she had lost her moment to question Remus. She then sighed and tried to massage her temples while James carried her. Nadia was not the only one who ended up in the hospital wing that day.

* * *

Remus blinked twice, then froze. _Did James just call me evil and stupid?_he asked himself. Well, James probably didn't mean it. Though, why did he run up and pick Lily up like that? Unless...Oh, Merlin. If James entered the corridor and saw Lily leaning towards him, he probably assumed that she was kissing him. Oh, Merlin. This was bad. Why was his life so screwed up?


	17. Chapter 17: Rumour has it

_**Ekaterina's Disclaimer: **__As much as we may _Imperio_ people into thinking that we own Harry Potter, Ms. Rowing somehow sends over a death glare worthy of Nadia and shames us into giving the public their free minds back. So sad but true. Not really. But still. In my mind. _

_**Mimiona's Disclaimer**__: Guess what I got for my birthday! The characters! *In the background, you hear my mother screaming "Don't tell fibs, sweetie, lying is a sin!"* Gosh darn it, mom, you told them! Man! Well, you caught me. I didn't get the characters. In fact, no matter how much I wish, I will never get the characters. Notice the tear falling from my eye as I realize the truth in that statement. Sigh. Well, the characters don't belong to us. _

_**Blossom's Note:**__ Mimiona's birthday is in the FALL! _

_**Mimiona's Note**__: Shut up, Blossom! It doesn't matter _when_ my birthday is, I still don't own the characters. Now, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, I'm all done with CSTs! Yay! BTW, don't forget to review! Oooh, and can't forget! Special thanks to Orange-Coyote, littleLaralevin, i love FRED SIRIUS JPLE, and Hopes-Dreams-Wishes_! _Well, I guess that's all I have to say, today, so *bows down toward audience* enjoy the chapter!_

_**Ekaterina's Note: **__Due to how long our notes were in the past chapter, I shall keep it short: Thank you for reading, we appreciate it very much and adore our readers. Please don't stop reviewing- our faithful reviewers: OrangeCayote and LittleLaraLevin are seriously appreciated. (BTW, just to clear things up, Amber is a "dinosaur...")!_

_**Amber's Note:**__ Gosh, all our disclaimers and notes are oh so long and take quite a bit of time to read, don't they? And not to mention that, but I've noticed it's more like the conversations we have with the readers. That's pretty cool! *wags tail that I wish I had* Believe it or not, thanks to CSTs, we're updating more often than we usually do O.o We're not exactly the best role models, are we? So don't learn from us. And especially don't try and steal the characters from J.K Rowling. I'm warning you! *bares perfectly symmetrical dinosaur teeth* _

* * *

The world had gone mad. That was the only explanation. The entire day past had been filled with the craziest events that had left Lily feeling like she was the only sane one in this world.

"You're not," Lara said suddenly. The two were sitting in the Gryffindor common room studying for their Transfiguration test tomorrow.

"Huh?" Lily asked blankly.

"Not the only sane person in the world. I am sane! (I think!)" she said.

"Whaa?" Lily looked bewildered and rather frightened now. "CAN YOU READ MINDS NOW?"

"Umm...no," Lara answered matter-of-factly.

"THEN HOW IN THE NAME OF MERLIN'S BEARD DID YOU KNOW I WAS THINKING ABOUT THAT?" Lily screeched.

"Geez, calm down!" Lara said, scribbling some notes onto a scrap of parchment. "How many years have I known you? I can just...tell. How you feel, and stuff like that. Just by your actions and how you look. I guess it's just natural...we've known each other so long!" Lara shrugged.

"Oh." Lily stared into space. Could she tell when Lara was feeling off? She sure hoped she did.

Lara grinned. "Like, for example, I can tell how you feel about James. And I know what you think about when you think no one is listening to the gears turning in your head," she sang.

"How I feel about-What! The only feeling I feel towards James is pure annoyance! I mean... I think. NO! I hate his stinking guts!"

Lara smirked. "Ohhh, defensive much? Lily, calm down. It's fine, just chill for a moment. You know how Nadia is. She'll be fine tomorrow acting like her usual morbid self and cuddling Death like there is no tomorrow. Maybe even staring into the lake with Alice while looking for the squid to surface! Alice...well...About her, I we already knew that she lost it ages ago, so no worries there!" Lara beamed happily.

"Remus...he kissed Alice. I don't know if she will recover soon...It probably came as a shock to her," Lily said.

Lara gasped. "He did? Kyaaaaaaa! Oh my Merlin. But, poor Alice. No, I don't mean it that way, I'm sure he's a fine kisser, but...Alice? Oh Merlin. This is brilliant, our own Alice...Ha! Ha! Oooh!" Then she burst out laughing.

"Yeah," Lily said thoughtfully. "But, she'll get over it. Alice will grow up, too, you know. She'll like boys and go on dates, like the rest of us. But it might take her some time to get used to the idea of being... un-unique? And haven't you noticed that Remus always liked Alice? It was pretty obvious."

Lara nodded. "Come to think of it, yeah...Anyway, what are you going to do about James? Shred him to pieces with hexes? Die of embarrassment? Heh, can I plan your funeral?"

"What do you mean?" Lily answered, turning cotton candy pink.

"You know what I mean!" Lara said, shaking her head. "I want to be able to plan a marvelous funeral for you in which we cremate you into a diamond then have Alice tap dance on the coffin in which we place the diamond. It will be tons of fun! We can have fireworks and explosions, and -"

"Hey, are you enjoying the prospect of me dying?" Lily protested.

"Uh-huh! So now tell me what actually happened. You suddenly appear with a bouquet of lilies on you dresser and they are amazing, only a true wizard *cough cough James* could have come up with ones that won't wither... Now you are lost in thought... Heh, they were probably stuffed into your hands by a very shy James, no?"

Lily sighed. "...yeah...well, um, no."

"No?" Lara raised an eyebrow.

"He didn't stuff it in my hand. He gave it to me, he handed it to me in this beautiful garden he..." Lily said, her eyes twinkling at the thought.

"WHAT? And you didn't tell me of this life changing event?" Lara seemed shocked.

"Hey, I thought you could feel what happened to me?" Lily said teasingly.

"Well, not everything! UGH! TELL ME!" Lara said shrilly. "ALL ABOUT IT!"

"Basically, he dragged me to the Room of Requirements where he had made this botanical garden type thing and we just talked...and stuff," Lily said reluctantly.

"That's all?" Lara looked at Lily slyly.

"Yeah," Lily turned slightly red but her voice was firm.

"Okay," Lara decided to let her go...for the meantime. "Yesterday, Sirius and I, we had fun! He turned into a dog, and oh Merlin, I thought I saw the grim, but it was him. So we played  
fetch and he carried me-"

"CARRIED YOU?"

"Well, yeah. He carried me to the kitchen where we had all sorts of desserts and stuff," Lara smiled. "It was yummy,"

"What? Sirius? Or your desserts?" Lily teased.

"LILY! What is up with you!" Lara said, blushing indignantly.

"Nothing..." Lily answered innocently with a small wink and a giggle. "Just making sure..."

"Anyway, that's not the issue here! You and James, you know, is the real problem!"

"How? He and I have no relationship other than same year and house!" Lily said, pouting.

"Yeah...right. And well, James probably thought you kissed Remus! There are rumors going around the whole school about how you are playing James and Remus!" Lara said.

"Yeah? Well-" Lily stopped short, the meaning of what Lara had just said dawned on her. "What did you say?"

Lara impatiently sighed. "Rumors are going around the school that you kissed Remus yesterday, and that you are playing with James."

Lily opened her mouth to scream, but caught herself at the last minute, and took many forced deep breaths. "Oh. My. Merlin. James thought that I kissed Remus?"

Lara nodded.

"Crud. Crud, crud, that's why he was acting so strange yesterday," she said, as though everything made sense now.

Once again, Lara nodded. "What happened?"

Lily completely ignored Lara. "And he thought I played him?" she whispered.

Lara nodded, this time impatiently. "No duh, Sherlock. But what did you do to Remus to make James assume something like that?"

"Oh trust me Watson, this is most definitely a lot of poop. Anyhow, I...kind of...forced him to tell me what he did to Alice."

"What? How?"

Lily blushed. "By leaning in unnecessarily close and whispering taunts in his ear."

Lara gasped. "...That is not good. Imagine how it must've looked to James. Oh. Oh. Oh. That is so bad."

"Lara, you're not making me feel any better than I was feeling before you said that. What should I do?", she groaned.

"And that, my friend, is where you're on your own. I'm going to see if Sirius is busy, okay? Good luck!" Lara said, turning around and skipping out of the portrait daintily.

"...And she calls herself my best friend," Lily muttered, rolling her eyes. Now she was going to have to see James.

* * *

"Have you seen James Potter?" asked Lily to a group of third year girls chatting in the hallways.

A girl giggled. "Are you going to say sorry for cheating on him?" she asked.

"What? I-" Lily spluttered. What were people thinking? They were not even dating for he to cheat on him.

"Oooh, I heard that it was with his friend! Remus? Was it really him? Can you tell us about it?" another squealed, eagerly rushing forward.

"Bloody Hell, I don't even like-"

"Don't say that; we all know." A blonde girl smiled and said, "James isn't the hottest guy ever. Frankly Remus is better; I understand you completely and-"

"WHAT? First off, I am NOT dating anyone in this school. I never was, I don't know if I ever will. I just wanted to know if you saw him?" Lily was boiling with anger. "JUST TELL ME IF YOU KNOW WHERE HE IS!" she said through gritted teeth.

"Sheesh, no need to get mad! You can trust us, we won't-" the first girl started.

"_Shut. Up. One more word and I swear I will hex your little gossiping mouths into dinosaur snouts!_" Lily hissed and pulled out her wand.

The girls whimpered and shook their heads, slowly backing away from the fuming Lily.

Lily tossed her hair and stalked away angrily-and walked right into the hardened face of James Potter.

"James?" Lily growled in a surprised tone.

James ignored her and started to walk away.

"Wait! I need to talk to you. Can we go somewhere? Please?" Lily begged.

James stopped and turned around. His eyes softened as he saw Lily's anxious face. "Let's go somewhere quieter," he muttered, and led the way out.

* * *

"What do you need to tell me?" James said, his voice sharp.

They were at the astronomy tower, which was empty at the time of day.

"James, I don't know what you're thinking-It's just-I didn't..." Lily didn't know how to say this.

"Lily, I saw you. I saw you with Remus and what you did with him. In front of our entire History of Magic Class, practically. So do I need you to tell me something more?" he asked angrily.

"It's not that! I promise! I'm not interested in Remus! At all!" Lily protested.

"And you played with me! You-in the Room of Requirement-how could you do that to me? I thought you finally understood how I felt, but you were only playing with me!" James roared.

"James, it's not-"

"I don't have anything more to say!" James started down the astronomy tower.

Lily stared at him and said quietly, "I still have the lilies..."

James halted and turned around. His face was like a sculpture. There was no expression, no emotion in it whatsoever. "Really? Why don't you toss them in the trash like you did my heart  
-no, more like cursed it into flames and a pile of ashes." His words were like arrows. "Why do you still have it?"

"...Because...whenever I see it, I remember you, and I..." Lily's voice wilted away. "And I...want to be with you," she confessed, her face burning scarlet.

James stared. "What? Say that again?"

"I want to...," Lily glanced at James, who still was frozen, "be with you."

"Really?" James said, a small smile breaking out on his face. A moment later, however, he composed his expression and settled back into his steady glare. "You're lying. You just want me to shut up and leave you alone."

"What? No! James, don't think that!"

"Why not? Sure seems like you do." He glared at her.

"James, stop!" Lily yelled. Then she quieted her voice. "James, I like you."

James turned to Lily, his expression doubting. "How much?"

"More than you think," she said with a small smile.

He looked up at her, quite disbelieving. "Prove it."

She gave an inward groan. Of course he'd want her to prove that she liked him. She'd been stupid to hope that he wouldn't. Well, Lily certainly didn't want James to hate her. So, Lily supposed that there was absolutely no way to avoid him hating her unless...

Lily looked at him, studying his expression. His face was pulled into a small dubious frown. His eyes, however, had a touch of mischief in them.

James continued looking at Lily with an unreadable expression on his face. Inside, though, he was hoping...

Lily slowly walked forward until the gap between the two was gone. She closed her eyes for a moment, then raised her arm to the back of his neck. She gently pulled his head down to hers, and rose onto her tiptoes to close the height difference. She smiled as James closed his eyes.

When their noses were almost touching, Lily giggled. At the sound, James opened his eyes. Lily tilted her head back and kissed his nose, then turned around and toward the door. Right before she made it out the door, she turned around and blew a kiss to James.

She giggled again, and ran down the steps. When she got to her dorm, she said the password, ran to her bed and plopped down. Smiling, she replayed the last few minutes in her mind. When she came to the part where she blew him a kiss, she laughed out loud.

The look on his face was priceless.

* * *

_Hello, readers! Okay, this is from all of us. First off, we just wanted to ask you people to recommend any fanfictions that you liked or you wrote. Any book, any language (but preferably English) and any length._

_And...well, bad news. This story is kind of dying out, and so the four of us have decided that, unless, we get some requests to continue, the story will be ending within two more chapters. Once again, thank you to our faithful reviewers, and, If I could give the world to you guys, I would. Thank you again, and till next time!_


	18. Chapter 18: Not playing, experimenting

_**Disclaime**__r: Ooooh, three wishes, one to fly to heavens, one to swim with fishes, one to own Harry Potter even though we know that it will never happen... (Song: 3 Wishes by the Pierces). We also do not own Barbie. _

_**Ekaterina's Note**__: Hey, I'm going to speak on the behalf of everyone today seeing as one of us is out of town, one I'm too lazy to call up and ask to add a note, and the other one is busy. So, we apologize for the long time it took us to update, it was a hectic few weeks for us even though CSTs are over :P. OH. Good, news, due to the reviews of some loyal reviewers, we ARE continuing the story! Thank you to all that reviewed, it seriously warmed our hearts with joy. Okay, so enjoooy!_

"Attention students!" Headmaster Dumbledore stood up magnificently. It was not often that he called attention to himself during breakfast, so the students took no notice. The chatter did not quiet one bit but, to the professors' irritation, seem to get louder.

"Attention!" he tried again.

Slughorn glared at the students angrily. "Shall I...?" he asked Dumbledore when a third try proved no better.

Dumbledore nodded briefly. Slughorn brought out his wand and with a sharp flick, the entire hall was silenced.

Students everywhere looked like goldfish out of water gulping for air.

"May I bring myself to attention?" This time, every eye was fixed on Dumbledore. "We will be having a ball-a masquerade, to be exact-next Saturday. You may choose to attend, if you wish, alone or with a partner. There will be drinks and refreshments. Thank you, students. Professor Slughorn can remove the silencio spell, now," he said with a brief nod.

Slughorn flicked his wand again, and the chatter was quickly back, this time about the masquerade-and about partners.

LOST (PLEASE REPORT IF FOUND) : MY SANITY ~ LOST (PLEASE REPORT IF FOUND) : MY SANITY ~ LOST (PLEASE REPORT IF FOUND) : MY SANITY

"So, are you and Sirius going to the ball then?" Lily questioned Lara as they staggered to Potions with an armload of books.

"No... Wait...he would ask me, right?" Lara said with a worried expression.

"Hey, right now he is probably dreaming about which dress you are going to wear. Besides, Sirius isn't the type to miss such a good chance to spend time with you," Lily reassured as the two entered the Potions classroom. Slughorn was not in-probably getting another can of crystalized pineapples from the kitchen.

"Yeah, I suppose...You and James are going, na?"

"Huh? Oh, well, no...but why would he ask me? I mean, he could ask any other girl..." Lily said in carefree voice but her slightly tinged cheeks didn't convince Lara.

"Yeah, yeah, right," Lara smirked and dropped her books onto her desk. "Look, there he comes now!" She pointed at a flushed James hurrying toward Lily. "I'll leave, have fun!" She rushed over to Alice and Nadia who were also entering the room, leading them back out so the class was only occupied by the two.

"Hey, Lily!" James said brightly.

"Hi..." Lily said, shooting him a small smile.

"Hey, I need to talk to you after Potions, okay?"

Lily grinned. "Do I really have a choice?"

"Nope!" James, smiled, his word popping on the "p".

"Okay, then! I guess I will."

LOST (PLEASE REPORT IF FOUND) : MY SANITY ~ LOST (PLEASE REPORT IF FOUND) : MY SANITY ~ LOST (PLEASE REPORT IF FOUND) : MY SANITY

After class Lily skipped down the hall to meet James, but came to a stop when she saw he wasn't there.

"Eh? But-" she was cut off when a pair of arms wrapped around her waist.

"My dear Princess Lily, I am hoping that you will do me the honor of accompanying me to the upcoming ball? It would be such a pleasure..." he whispered, warm breath tickled her ear.

"Ah... Uh..." Lily stammered, she wasn't accustomed to this at all.

"Or," he leaned in closer, "should I try to persuade you..." this one was accompanied by a light kiss by her ear.

"Ah...alright, I'll go!" she managed to squeak before wriggling out of his arms and running down the hall, her face flushing and hot.

"He asked you, he asked you, didn't he?" Lara ran up to meet Lily, closely followed by Nadia and Alice looking with equal anticipation towards the answer.

Lily nodded briefly, but her face was glowing.

"Oooohhh! Lucky! How sweet~" cooed Nadia.

"I wonder if they will have mistletoe..." mused Alice as she twirled around the room. Lily and Lara exchanged knowing smirks, that definitely meant that Remus had already asked her and she had accepted.

"Nadia, you going?" Lily asked.

"Hmmm? Oh, yeah, but I won't have a partner...anyway, I'll be taking Death," Nadia answered, brushing back her hair.

"Oh, well maybe someone will ask you out?" Lara said mildly.

"ARGH! Are you serious? I don't want to have a partner. Really, I don't know what's gotten into all of, flirting with-"

"Excuse me? Flirting?" Lily said. "Really, Nadia," she said, laughing, "we aren't _flirting_...just _experimenting _with guys..." She burst into laughter.

"You make them sound like lab mice," Lara said, also laughing.

"Anyway, no. I am most certainly NOT getting a partner, I only want Death!" Nadia said defiantly.

"Whatever floats your space shuttle..." Alice answered, beginning to twirl around. "We're going to dance at the ball, right?"

"Yeah, if you wanna, I guess..." Lily answered. "If Remus asks you to, you should..."

Lara frowned. "Oh, you two are already worrying about dancing or not...I haven't even been asked to go to the ball!"

"Well, Lara, here comes your Prince Charming now~" Lily said in a sing-songy voice before rushing down the hallway, followed by Nadia and Alice.

"LILY!" It was a sharp, high voice.

Lily turned on her heels. Her face darkened as she saw who had called her. She motioned for Nadia and Alice to go on without her. They turned away reluctantly and went into the library.

"Shantall," Lily stated.

Shantall smirked. "Yes, that is my name, don't wear it out," she said, tossing her head haughtily. She had raven black hair and dark amythst eyes. She had long eyelashes, glistening dark red lips, and perfect skin. Today she wore a dangerously short skirt that exposed slender legs and a flowing silver robe. Everyone had to agree she was a gorgeous girl.

Lily shrugged. "It's already worn out enough by your fanboys," she said coolly. "What do you want?"

"I've told you this before, but you're probably so stupid you forgot already. Get off James Potter," she said her eyes flashing angrily.

Lily laughed. "Oh, how did I know you would order me to get off James? Oh, maybe because all you do is bat your fake eyelashes in his general direction and throw yourself at him when he already made it clear to stay away? Really, Shantall? Don't you have better things to do? Seriously, just find a new guy like you do every week."

Lily was exasperated. Shantall had been on her everyday of her life to get her off James Potter ever since fourth year or so when he remained the only boy who failed to fall for her during the three years at Hogwarts. And she hated Lily's guts because James was always "flirting" with Lily. It was a given widely known fact that Shantall had a deep grudge against Lily, and Lily couldn't deny that she didn't quite like Shantall either. She simply happened to be much more subtle and elegant about it.

"Well, apparently you have a really bad memory because you won't get off of my boy." Shantall shifted her weight, placing a hand on her hip.

"Excuse me? Your boy? You make it sound like your his mother or something..."

"Shut up, Evans! Don't you even talk to him. Don't you even lay a finger on him! I saw you just now! Hugging and kissing!" she said accusingly.

"What? I-"

"No, I see you every single moment of your stupid life with him! I know it, you know it!" she growled. "Do you really wanna piece of me?"

"No thanks. I really dunno what I would do with your leg or your arm..." Lily said, laughing. An image of holding the limbs of a Barbie doll that looked a lot like Shantall popped in her head.

"I am dead serious right now, you had better watch your mouth," Shantall glared at Lily.

Lily stopped laughing. Her eyes were flashing brilliantly. "The whole Hogwarts knows that you've been after Potter since we were in first year. Tsk, I wonder why he never fell for you when virtually every other boy was drooling over you! I wonder! Maybe because you're a s-"

"EXCUSE ME? Did you just call me-"

"And for your information, I was never all over him! He was the one who hugged me, who kissed me! You know why? Because likes me! And I would really appreciate you not stalking us, you know?"

"You really want to get on my nerves, don't you? Just get off my love!" Shantall declared, her voice rising.

"You know what? For a change, why don't you try getting off the only ******* person I have ever fallen hard on?" Lily retorted. "Stop chasing something that never was and never will be!"

"Filthy mudblood! Gold digger, I swear on my ancestor's pure graves that if Potter isn't mine then there will be some nasty consequences..." Shantall spat menacingly.

"Oh, really? I bet you ancestors are turning in their graves right now, having something like you spoiling their reputation!" Lily said, her voice was suddenly cold and devoid of any emotion. To her this was close to a life and death situation, she was not going to lose something that had taken her so long to find. She glared at the only person she hated more than her sister and Snape before turning on her heel and marching into the library.

"What happened?" Nadia asked, looking worriedly into Lily's flushed face.

"The usuals...get off James Potter..." Lily's voice was rather tired.

"It did look a little more than that..." Alice remarked.

"Oh, there comes Lara!" Lily said, looking up from a book about dress robes and pointing to Lara who was eagerly heading towards them with flushed cheeks and a glowing smile.

"Sirius definitely asked her out," commented Nadia.

"Or, maybe a hippogriff bit her. It looks like she has the symptoms," Alice added, stopping her dancing to look.

"Guys! Guess what?" Lara squealed.

"Oh, what? Sirius asked you out for the ball?" Lily said in an exaggerated bored voice.

"Well, yeah, but he also..." Lara's eyes were shining.

"What else?" Lily stood up. "What else? Did he kiss you, or-"

"Did he propose? Are we having a wedding?" Alice interrupted with interest and started to sing the Wedding March tune and twirled around and around earning glares from students who were studying.

"No way! I am not getting married! He gave me this!" Lara carefully brought out a necklace from under her robes. It was hanging beautifully on her neck. It was in the shape of a heart, decorated with red rubies and engraved with an intricate design.

"Ooh! Gorgeous!" Nadia said. "It would have been even better if it had black stones onto it!"

Lara ignored her. "It's beautiful. He asked me to wear it to the masquerade... he told me he loved me!"

"How romantic!" Lily said. "What else?"

"That's all but-"

"ARGH!" There was a scream and a boom!

Lily jumped about six feet in the air. Lara almost dropped her precious necklace. Nadia accidentally stepped on Death's tail as she started up, resulting in a yowl.

"What was that?" Lily asked, turning around. She gasped and burst into giggles at the sight. Alice was lying on the floor, books piling over her. Over her was an almost empty book shelf.

Nadia sighed. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"

Alice smiled a little and got up. "Heh heh, I think the bookshelf ran into me..." She seemed a little zonked out.

"A bookshelf ran into you? More likely you were twilring and ran into it..." Lara said, suppressing giggles.

"No, that isn't possible..." Alice said seriously. "Let me try fixing this mess." She brought out her wand and with a sweep and a whisper, the books were wobbling up to the shelves.

LOST (PLEASE REPORT IF FOUND) : MY SANITY ~ LOST (PLEASE REPORT IF FOUND) : MY SANITY ~ LOST (PLEASE REPORT IF FOUND) : MY SANITY

The Gryfindor common dorm was bustling with anticipation and excitement. There were mirrors, counters piled with make-up, and dressing rooms all magically fitted into the room. The usual chairs and cushions were no where to be seen. It was the day of the masquerade.

"Lily, Lily! Look at my dress! How is it? Does it look alright?" Lara said, her face flushed and pink. She wore a magnificent lavender color dress, lined with black, intricate swirls on the bottom. It was long and flowy with a reasonably deep neckline that showed the necklace that Sirius had gotten for her. The dress showed off her slim figure and her hair was untied and curled, framing her face delicately.

"Oh, Lara," Lily said, her eyes widening. "It's beautiful!"

Lara smiled, and held up her mask. "What about this?" It was white with purple glittery designs that wove around it, with black feathers.

"It matches your eyes perfectly," Lily reassured, and then frowned. "What about my dress?"

Lara smiled. "Lily, you look gorgeous!" Lily wore a long strapless gown that swept across the floor. It was emerald with gold designs of flowers-lilies-woven onto it beautifully. Her mask was a pearly white with green swirls. There was a perfect lily placed delicately in her auburn hair which was cascading down her waist like ripples of a river.

"It really brings out your green eyes," Lara said.

"Okay, then, let's go," Lily said flashing a grin.

"Uh, actually, Sirius was supposed to meet me in front of the portrait and I-" Lara said fingering her necklace.

"Ohhh, I see... Shall I say no more? Sure, Lara, go ahead. I'll check on Nadia and Alice and then go, ok?" Lily smirked. She and James had agreed to meet in front of the ballroom.

"Thanks, Lily, see you at the ball!" Lara said with a mischievous grin and flowed away and out of the portrait.

Lily watched her go out, then took a final look of herself at the mirror, checking her hair and dress. "Nadia? Alice?"

Nadia emerged from behind a long mirror. "Hmm?" She was dressed morbidly, as Lily had to admit. Her black gown was pretty, but rather strange. It was a long black dress with thin straps that has a thin material flowing down her shoulders. The top was slightly puffy and it reached down into an elegant belt which had a silver rose on it and cascaded into a flowy skirt. In her hand she held a pearly back mask with silver designs and sparkles.

"Ready to go?" Lily asked, smiling.

"Yup!" came a voice as Alice floated dreamily out, too. She wore a pale pink dress-simple but suitable. It was covered with beads-silver and white-making intricate designs of flowers and butterflies. Her shoulders were draped with a matching shawl. From beneath her long dress were small, dainty dancing feet in Cinderella-style glass shoes.

"Aww~! Alice, you look adorable! Like a fairy!" Lily exclaimed.

Alice grinned, "Lily, you always look wonderful."

"A-hem," Nadia said frowning jokingly.

"Oh, but Nadia looks dashing every second of her life!" Lily said quickly, jabbing her with her elbow playfully.

"Haha Yeah right," Nadia said sarcastically, but she was smiling. "Where's Lara?"

"Having some 'alone time' with Sirius," Lily answered, grinning.

"Are you ready to have some of that 'alone time' with James?" Nadia countered.

"Huh? Wha...? YOU!"

"Hey, hey! I told you guys to stop playing with guys..." Nadia was cracking up. "And you, Alice?"

Alice nodded. "Remus will be waiting," she confirmed, dancing across the floor.

"See! No need to hide it! Is James waiting for you outside? Or better yet, is he going to dance with you? Ooooh, this is some majorly good stuff!" Nadia said, reaching down for Death and petting him.

"Enough! Enough!" Lily said, flushing, "Let's go!"

The three made their way carefully to the ballroom. There were guys in dress robes and tuxedos with their hair spiked up, and girls dressed in the usual fancy robes or sweeping ballgowns that were bound to clean up the entire school's floors.

"This is going to be SO MUCH FUN!" squealed Alice. "Come on! Let's go in!" She pulled Nadia and Lily to the doors.

"Uh, you two go in. I've got to meet James out here," Lily said, her reddening face concealed by her mask.

"See what I mean about flirting with guys?" Nadia said again, but let go of Lily's arm.

Okay, then, see you around." She walked into the room with Death on her heels and Alice practically leaping at her side.

"Now where is James Potter?" Lily said to herself as she fingered the mask on her face.

"Did you call?" James was beside Lily.

"Whoa, where did you come from?" Lily giggled in spite of herself.

"From your heart," James answered sweetly, winking.

"Blech!" Lily was laughing. "Can you tell I'm Lily even with the mask on?"

James threw his arms around her. "I can tell who's my Lily anywhere, anytime!"

Lily lightly tapped James' arm. "Come on, let's go in," she said.

"Okay." James offered Lily his hand. "May I escort Miss Lily to the ballroom?" he asked.

Lily brought her hand into his. "Yes." Under the safety of her mask, her face was reddening.

"Let us go, then." James led Lily through the door and into the maginficent room.

Lily gasped. It was beautiful, wondrous. "Oh, Merlin..."

The Great Hall had been magically transformed. Gone were the usual tables. Instead, there was a white marble floor that was so clean and bright that Lily could see her reflection. In the center of the room was the dancing floor. Couples were slow-dancing to a classical tune coming from a string quartet that was bewitched to play themselves. On the sides there were elegant cushioned chairs and tables covered with lacy tablecloths. There were piles of desserts: chocolate, fruits, pastries, cakes, pies, truffles, punch, and tea.

"Yep, this is going to be fun," she heard James mutter.


	19. Chapter 19: Soaps, Suds, and Insanity

_**Ekaterina's Disclaimer:** To put it quite simply, if we owned this, we would be filthy rich and sitting in England sipping tea in a very Victorian style room. We would also be wearing awesome mini-hats that have feathers and lace. I think... no, it can't be! We sadly do not own Harry Potter._

_Okay, that was Ekaterina's disclaimer...she is into Victorian style these days...actually for a months now. Now if I owned Harry Potter...things would be a little different. Oooh, there would be books and books and books in the library in my mansion! And the bookshelves would be SO tall that they reached the ceiling and I would have to roll around in my rolling ladder to get books. Like in Beauty and the Beast (Credits to Disney). And I would have a beautiful room, with an awesome bed...soft and comfy...And I would have a garden with flowers! Lilies and daisies and rosebushes and- Oh yeah, we don't own Harry Potter. Huh. **-Blossom-**_

_**Mimiona's Note: **__I don't know if you readers know or not, Ekaterina mentioned something of one of our authors being out of would be me. I just spent the last week in Pennsylvania and DC as a fieldtrip with my school, so I didn't participate in writing the last chapter, but I'll help with this one. Also, Special thanks, as usual, to littlelaralevin, Orange-coyote, Darke Whispers, Mayroses (Alexandra?), vballplaya7__**, **__(awesome name, btw :)) Thank you guys soooooo much! You have NO idea how much it means to us!_

Lily looked around for her friends. Everyone looked a little different in masks and long dresses. "James, do you see Nadia or Lara or Alice?" she asked.

James shook his head. "No. In my eyes, I only see you," he answered, bringing the hand he held to his lips.

Lily's face flushed. "Come on!" she said, but there was pleasure in her voice.

"Well, I'll try looking-for you, Lilyflower," James said teasingly. "Hmmm...Oh, there's Alice-" he said, pointing, "and Remus," he added, his, smirking.

"Where...? Oh, I see! Oh, don't they look adorable together?" Lily asked, half to herself, but James answered, handing Lily a cup of punch.

"Yeah, sure. But no one is more adorable than my Lily," James said, smiling.

Lily started choking on her drink.

"LILY! Oh, no! Dont' die! Wouldn't that make it hard for me to clean up the evidence that I may have been the cause of death?" James asked, concerned.

"Narcissist..." Lily said in between coughs. When they finally ceased she added, "just what you say makes me..." she burst into giggles.

"What?" James said indignantly, with a tinge of whining in his voice.

"Don't think that voice will work on me~" Lily said.

James grinned. "But it already is," he said.

Lily stared at him. "Oh, you-"

"May I have this dance?" he asked suddenly as a piece ended and a brighter, more perky tune started.

"Why-yes," Lily said, a little surprised.

James led her to the floor. "Do you know how to dance?"

"Eh... Um... Not in the least. You had better lead..." she said with a small shrug.

"Okay! Let's go!" he cried enthusiastically.

To say the least, the next hour or so was filled of much tripping, James avoiding stepping on Lily's feet, and Lily stomping all over James's. By the end both were nearly in tears, Lily for her lack of skill and James for his bruised feet. He had never realized that heels were a potential weapon and was dreading any more dancing to come.

"Why can't I be more like Alice?" Lily muttered, looking jealously at her and Remus. They were easily the best dancing couple at the ball-twirling and leaping across the dance floor. Not one trip, not one missed step.

"Oh, come on, Lily. She dances every moment of her life!" James said, trying to make her feel better. "Let's go sit down now, get some rest." He led her to a table.

"Hey, where's Lara and Sirius?" asked Lily, looking around.

"Probably lost in their own world," answered James.

"You're right..." Lily said pointing to a couple at the far side of the dance floor. Lara was in hysteric giggles and Sirius was purple-literally. He was choking himself with his tie. For some odd reason no one found this odd and rather frightening at all. Except for Ekaterina who somehow happened to be there and who looked at them first in shock, then in interest for it seemed to be working. Sirius looked half dead. Not that anyone was complaining, of course.

"Oh, and there's Nadia, with Death!" announced James.

"Where-oh, I see." Lily smiled. "Can I ask her to come here?"

"Well...Okay," James answered, hoping that Nadia would refuse so he could get some time with Lily.

"Awesome! NA-" started Lily, however, she stopped in surprise when a rather nice looking seventh year Ravenclaw walked up to Nadia. He then sat down and struck up conversation with her, this was a rare occurrence for Nadia was one who generally stayed to herself, especially around guys. A couple of moments later, he held out his hand to her and she seemed to consider, then slipped her hand into his with some amusement.

She placed Death on her chair and the Ravenclaw petted her head and from the looks of it, was promising Nadia's safety to a cat. Nadia, however, seemed to take this very seriously and nodded with satisfaction when Death licked the boy's hand and cuddled into the chair.

Lily and James gasped simultaneously.

"Nadia is..." James began.

"dancing? With a guy?" Lily finished. "Merlin! Oh, Merlin! Is she feeling okay?"

James stared at the couple. They made their way to the middle of the dance floor. Nadia fell into step with the Ravenclaw and the two started twirling and spinning.

James shook his head. "I don't know...Anyway Lily, where were we?" he asked, eager to get back to a conversation with Lily.

"Um, I-"

At that moment there was a sharp yowl of a very irritated cat. A Hufflepuff girl (A/N: Ever since reading 'My Immortal with Commentary,' I have never thought of those poor innocent Hufflefpuffs in the same way again...) had attempted to sit on the chair without noticing Death. She screeched and nearly collapsed into her friend's arms screaming "Merlin, Merlin!" on the top of her lungs. In addition, they now had a very irritated cat now racing across the tables, making its way with surprising agility through the platefuls of cookies and glasses of punch. Sirius and James both made a lunge for the cat and ended up crashing head on. The cat, with a final yowl, jumped very neatly into the waiting arms of Alice, who then started to pet and comfort it. Remus was too busy laughing at the two on the floor, who were muttering curses and glaring at the multitudes of giggling people now surrounding them..

"Oh, hey. Look, I didn't notice how much food there was before! And it's not even running out!" exclaimed Sirius as he rubbed his head. Apparently hitting his head with James gave him some sort of new insight.

"Noooo, the magic can't have anything to do with it whatsoever, hmm?" said James dryly.

"Wellll, how bout we test that magic?" Sirius grinned mischievously.

"How-Oh. OH. OHHHH!" James grinned broadly.

"Let's see how long this magic can last!" Sirius said, chuckling before grabbing a large platter of muffins and promptly sweeping them into his mouth. "Mmm MMMM Mummmmmm!" he yelled, causing many innocent bystanders to view a rather disgusting interior of a mouth full of muffins.

"Huh?" Remus asked, looking at the two. He looked exasperated and amused at the same time.

"He says, 'This is GOOD!'" translated James, who shooting a smile, had followed Sirius' example. He was now shoving mouthfuls of cookies into his mouth that, at the moment, reminded Remus of a black hole.

"Oh, Merlin..." Lily, who had come to see what the commotion was, muttered and turned on her heels to go back to her friends.

"Hey! The muffins are back!" Sirius said as he placed the platter down again and waved to Lily. The muffins had been magically replenished onto the tray as if they had just been baked out of the oven.

"MM Mmmm Mmmmss!" This time it was James.

"What is it now? This is so good?" asked Remus, laughing.

"Nope," Sirius replied in between huge gulps of punch, "he says that the cookies have returned, too."

"...oh." Remus managed before bursting into a fit of chuckles. He collapsed into a chair, laughing his lungs out.

James nodded and tossed a plateful of blueberry tarts in the air. He opened his mouth wide and they all fell neatly into his waiting mouth. As soon as he tossed it back to the table, all the tarts returned.

And so it went on. James would gobble down a tray full of pies, they would return two seconds later. Sirius inhaled a platter of cupcakes, they would also be back. Soon, even the two with seemingly ever-hungry stomachs were full.

"Aghhh...I can't eat another bite..." James moaned. He was half-lying on the marble floor surrounded by plates and platters filled with delicious food.

Sirius nodded. "...maybe the magic won't run out..."

This seemed to give some new encouragement to James. "Come on, Sirius! Let's do this! We can do it! It WILL run out!" He reached by his side, grabbing a handful of tarts, and tossed them into his mouth. He looked at platter expectantly. There was a gasp as the tarts did not return and the tray remained half-full.

"It's working!" Sirius exclaimed excitedly. He shoved a platter of cookies into his mouth. The platter remained empty.

"YEESSS!" James jumped up, and apparently forgetting that he couldn't eat another bite, started vacuuming food into his mouth. In went a tray of cupcakes, followed by a jug of punch. He threw slices of pie in the air and they all went straight into his mouth.

Sirius grinned triumphantly. He shoved all the chocolate covered fruits into his mouth. He grabbed the bowl of jellybeans and drank it all down. "Blech..." he said, making a face, "I got one flavored like saltwater..."

"Here, this'll wash the flavor out," James tossed a tray of muffins to him.

"Thanks," Sirius answered and shoved them all into his mouth.

"This is the last plate..." James muttered, his eyes shining at a tray of chocolate frogs.

"We'll share it," Sirius suggested.

James nodded, and the two dove into the plate. When they came back up, their faces were covered in chocolate and the plate was spic and span.

"HIGH FIVE!" James yelled, and the two slapped their hands.

"YES! We did it!" Sirius screamed.

"Gentlemen." The voice quieted the entire room.

James and Sirius turned to see Headmaster Dumbledore looking at them, his eyes looking bemused. "May I ask what is going on?" he asked.

"Well, uh, sir, we just ate all the food...and it didn't return after a while," James answered.

"And, we are really, really full," Sirius added. He patted his stomach.

Dumbledore nodded. "I am sure you are. I aslo see that you managed to eat up faster than the house elves could keep up with you... Do your stomachs by any chance contain... black holes?" he said, shaking his head. "It has never happened before..." he seemed thoughtful. "But, for causing so much commotion at the ball and eating out all the magic...there will be a punishment."

"What?" James' eyes widened.

"NO!" Sirius looked like he was about to cry.

"It will be kitchen duty. Clean up after yourselves. Since you ate up all the magic, it's only fair you must clean and wash all the plates and platters-without magic. I expect it to be done in an hour." With that, Dumbledore walked back out of the room.

"NOOOOOO!" Sirius whined.

"No point in doing that. Let's get going. We don't wanna know what'll happen if we don't finish it in an hour..." James said dryly and led Sirius out of the ballroom toward the kitchen.

Remus followed after them. "I'll help!" he called.

la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la~la

Lily sighed half with amusement and half with irritation. How did she know that something or another would go wrong? Lara was busy laughing her head off at the boys' punishments. Alice gracefully twirled over and grabbed their hands to start a sort of circle waltz.

"My, my. I didn't know that there were wuddermurts in you lovers' stomachs... Just like big empty holes that eat evrything..." she said dreamily. "Remus is a very interesting dancer... He lets me take the lead rather than otherwise."

Lily and Lara blinked at the sudden change of topic. Both turned away grimacing slightly at their own attempts at dancing.

"Lets go and poke fun at the guys in the kitchens, after all, it's rather pointless to be here without them..." said a resigned Lara.

"Yeah, no offense intended, but I'd much rather not ballroom dance with you guys..." Lily said, she made a face at the thought of her and Lara trampling each other and Alice... well, who knew what Alice would do.

"Okay, then let's go!" Alice started to march enthusiastically towards the kitchens.

"Oh, wait, what about Nadia and Death?" questioned Lara, surprised that they were leaving without them.

"Ah, I think Death caused enough trouble for the day, and as for Nadia..." Lily and Lara looked over at the dance floor where the Ravenclaw and Nadia seemed to be having a lovely time dancing and talking.

"Oooooh, Nadia's experimenting too!" Lara chuckled with glee. This could lead to so much fun, they could tease Nadia just the same as she teased them.

They rushed to the common room where they got dressed into ordinary clothes and made their way down to the kitchens where the boys were supposed to be carrying out their task. However when they got down, they were met with face-fulls of suds and water.

"Howdy-do, princess?" James asked, jumping up and causing suds and bubbles to fly everywhere. He grabbed three plates and started juggling them, narrowly catching one before it dropped on the floor.

"Uh...fine?" Lily answered and mouthed to Remus, "What's wrong with him?"

"Oh, the soap. I get the notion it's kind of poisonous or something..we're getting high off of it. Or at least James is," he answered, getting the plates from James.

"I see," answered Alice fluttering around dreamily.

Lara gave an exasperated sigh. "So, does anyone here know how to do the dishes?"

"Huh? Of course we know how to do the dishes! Let me show ya!" Sirius pulled the girls to the sinks. He grabbed a plate, put it under the faucet and turned the water on, and placed it in the cupboard.

"WHAT?" Lily shrieked. "What are you doing? Do you call that doing the dishes?" she asked. "What are you doing with the soap then?"

"Soap? What soap?" James sounded strangely high-pitched. He laughed, almost giggled.

"The thing that's on your hands and face!" Lara said in a bemused voice.

"...Eh?" James looked down. "Oh, this stuff...It looked like FUN!" On the "fun" he jumped and threw suds everywhere.

"I don't know; we don't know how to do the dishes. We barely know how to do it magically, we can't do it at all the Muggle way!" Remus exclaimed.

"Ugh, you boys can't do anything!" Lily complained.

"Well, if you girls are so good, why don't you do it?" Sirius demanded.

"We don't wanna!" yelled Lara.

"Oh, yeah?" Sirius flashed a triumphant smile. "Lara, my slave, do this work in place of me!"

"...But, I-"

"Finish it in an hour and be gone, so Dumbledore will never know, okay?" Sirius said, and ran out the room yelling, "Thanks!"

James giggled. "Lily, you're my slave, right? Do the work!" Normally he wouldn't have done anything to displease Lily, but he wasn't normal at the moment. He ran up also laughing and giggling like he was mad.

"No, I don't wanna..." Lily's voice trailed off.

Remus looked at Alice. "Sorry, Alice. But I don't wanna do this, either. Please do it, servant in a temporary bondage to ...Thanks." he muttered, and followed his friends.

Alice nodded. "Okay. I'll catch the wobbletoe for you," she said with determination.

"Oh, Merlin," said Lara and Lily at the same time.

Boo! Boo! Boo! Boo! Boo! Boo! Boo! Boo! Boo! MOOOOOO~ Boo! Boo! Boo! MOOOOO~

"Why are there so MANY?" wailed Lara.

"Maybe they multiply while we're asleep?" Alice asked, diving into a big bag of flour and coming out coughing and coated in white.

"Alice! What are you doing?" Lily demanded, flicking her wand to clean Alice.

"Looking for the wobbletoe," was her prompt answer.

Lily shook her head. "No, Alice, we are NOT looking for a wobble-whatever. We are DOING THE DISHES!"

Alice giggled. "Really?" she asked in a childish voice, looking at Lily with big, innocent eyes.

"Yes, yes, Alice." Lily answered reassuringly, and gently led her to the sink. "Now, let's get started. Okay, here's how it'll go. I will soap the dishes. Lara, you rinse under the faucet water. And Alice, please dry the dishes that Lara hands you, okay, everyone?"

"Sounds like a plan!" Lara said happily, rolling up her sleeves.

Alice nodded. "I dry the dishes with this washcloth?" she asked, holding up a dusty rag.

"No, NO, not the rag, this one," Lara handed Alice the cloth and turned the faucet on.

A couple minutes later, the three were quietly working, dutifully doing their jobs. Even Alice was drying the dishes and placing them into the cupboard without causing much commotion.

"Hey," Lily sniffed deeply at her soapy hands. "I think this soap's fumes are really poisonous..." She giggled. "I feel all lightheaded and stuff."

"Oh, come on Lily. Just because you're going out with James doesn't mean you have to ACT like him!" said Lara sensibly.

"James. James Potter. I LOVE JAMES! I LOVE JAMES!" Lily started chanting, still inhaling the soap.

"Oh, Merlin...Oh, she's going raving MAD! Alice, call Madam Profrey or something!" Lara said.

"MADAM PROFREY!" Alice shrieked, and then waited a moment, tilting her head as if listening for something. "Nope. She's not in. She won't answer the doorbell." she announced.

"We've got another one that's insane..." Lara said, shaking her head. She grabbed Lily's soapy hands and shoved them under running water. "And stop inhaling that thing. It must really be toxic or something. Hell, I bet this is what Sirius is on everyday..."

Lily seemed dazed for a moment, then her eyes widened as the soap washed off completely. "WHAT WAS I JUST DOING?" she asked.

"Eh? Oh, only going insane and screaming that you loved James," Lara answered dryly, gathering up the remainder of the dishes and scrubbing them furiously.

"Oh, oh..." Lily's face burned scarlet. "Here, I'll rinse." She started running the soapy dishes under the water and handing them to Alice.

_Everybody's Note: Thank you all again for reviewing, and for those who didn't, please do! Also, just felt like mentioning: with all those awesome reviews that we got, how could we NOT continue? Once again, thanks sooo much!_


	20. Chapter 20: Death, death, and more DEATH

_**Ekaterina's Disclaimer**__: We own only what we made. Not what we borrowed for the purposes of this story. Thank you for your consideration. :P_

_**Ekaterina's Not**__e: HIIIIIIII! So sorry that it took us so awfully long to update! I guess that we have just been having a bunch of stuff going on lately and yah. We finally graduated MS! Whoohooo! Now it's summer and we can either update faster or slower :P. OH. Of late I found the soundtrack for Burlesque and Nine and they are so crazy awesome! Cinemaaaaa Italiano! hehe... my favorite song changes weekly :P. Smile and be happy everyone, it's SUMMER! Oh, and right, this chapter is a bit like chapter one in the sense that we are getting the feel for a new arc in the story, so please do not be discouraged if it seems a bit off! Much thanks. _

"Bleh, I'm exhausted!" complained Lily.

"Ya think?" groaned Lara, she emitted a small yawn. The girls were covered in soap suds, water, and blobs-that-must-not-be-named. Their arms ached, and the muscles protested with every step they took. However, there was one exception.

"Think OOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFF ME!" Alice didn't seem at all disturbed, she seemed extraordinarily involved with her singing.

"You know, I'm really starting to regret giving her the Phantom of the Opera music... I just thought that it might suit her, you know..." Lara said, rubbing the side of her head.

"Well, apparently, you thought wrong!" Lily said and then looked back at Lara. "Mmm... speaking of music, I wonder how Nadia and that kid are getting on..."

"Whatever... I just want to grab Nadia and get to our dorms already... Alice... Remus can drop her off. As for that guy... we have a lot of annoying to do. Just not now," growled Lara.

"I want cake," said Lily suddenly.  
Lara looked at her in mild surprise, "Well, now that you mention it... I do too..."Alice popped up between the two exhausted girls, startling them into jumping backwards.

"Whoa!" Lara exclaimed. "What's wro-"

"Cake, I baked one. It's big and fluffy, lots of chocolate... actually, because not all torddlemits like chocolate, half is chocolate cake and the other half is cinnamon apple..." she beamed in delight.

"Ooooooh!" Lara's eyes widened and sparkled at the mention of chocolate cake.

"I'm in! Come on, we're gonna grab Nadia and have a cake party! Screw the ball, we can have our own fun..." declared Lily. As they began to move towards the Great Hall, Alice was thrown off balance by an irritated looking blur of black that seem to be screaming, 'DEEEEAAAAATTTTTHHHHH GET BACK HERE!"

"I... I think I found Nadia..." said Lara with surprise.

"And Death... I was wondering where he got to after the eating contest started..." mused Alice almost to herself.

"Well... I guess we can leave Nadia and get to the cak-" Lily was cut off by Lara grabbing her and Alice and running down the corridor towards where they had passed Nadia.

"Get off that cake and help me get Nadia! I think something's wrong otherwise Death wouldn't be running from Nadia of all people. You, m'dears, are going to help me catch them or there are going to be some SERIOUS PUNISHMENTS!" snarled Lara.  
Lily said irritatedly, "Yeah, whatever, but can you stop-"

"NO! I CANNOT STOP! WE NEED TO HELP OUR FRIEND (actually just get her so I can have chocolate cake) AND YOU ARE REFUSING TO?" Lara interrupted.

"Lar-"

"Alice, I thought that at least you would have the sense to see what's up with her?"

"LARA!" Lily and Alice yelled at the same time.  
Lara came to a screeching stop. "What?" she growled.

"LET GO OF US!" Lily hissed. .

"...huh?" Lara looked down at her hands. In one was a fistful of Lily's hair. Her eyes followed down to Lily's rather irritated face.

"Please let go!" Lily growled menacingly.

Lara laughed weakly and released her grasp from Lily's hair.  
"AHEM!"

"Oops! Sorry, Alice..." Lara flashed a smile and let go of Alice's blonde hair.

"Thank Death...," she said, rubbing her head and glaring at Lara.

"Okay, now. Off to find Nadia!" Lara bellowed.

"GOOOOO~!" The three started running down the hall in desperate search of their friend. And so Lily and her friends went off in search of Nadia. Did they find her? Of course they did! What kind of story would this be if they didn't? But the Nadia they found was a devastated one, she was sitting by the bottom of the stairs with a blank expression.

"Imperius curse. She went as far as to use unforgivable curses," she spat. She seemed to have a menacing aura about her but her eyes were blank.

"Hey, hey... What happened?" asked Lily softly.

"That **** **** ****-" started Nadia.

"Okay, okay, I- we get it... from your...colorful vocabulary I can only assume that it has something to do with Shantall?" interrupted Lara hastily. At this Nadia hissed, she stood up and walked off towards the stairs, hesitating only a bit to let the others catch up.

"She cursed Death, no? I bet she cursed Death to hate you. To hate all of us," Nadia looked startled at Alice's accurate words. She looked away uncertainly.  
They were interrupted by the sound of running feet, "Nadia, Nadia, did you find Death? I searched everywhere but... I'm sorry! I'm sure we can find her-" It was the interesting Ravenclaw who had seemed to really acknowledege Death as a person.

"We found Death. Death will come and find you..." announced Alice in a dreamy voice. THe boy seemed a bit taken aback.

"Er, sorry? Didn't catch that last bit... But it's good you found Death!"  
Lara grimaced, "Shut yer yappin. First off, now is not a good time to be happy. Second, let's discuss this over a nice whatever flavor and chocolate cake. I don't have the patience to explain to every person who passes by that we are not suicidal but looking for a freaking cat!"  
Lily silently nodded and led the way to the kitchens where they could talk in peace.

"Right, so first off, what's your name. I don't want to keep talking to you 'boy' or 'kid' or something stupid like-" started Lara.

"Adrian..." the poor boy seemed utterly befuddled.

Nadia slammed the table an stood up, "Stop it. All of you. I just want my cat and to murder that freaking... I don't even have words to describe her."

And so 'Plan: Death and Murder" started.

_Sorry for the short chapter. Will try to update more and faster X/ _


	21. Chapter 21: A plethora of Crocodiles

_Ekaterina's Disclaimer: I could say that I own Harry Potter and company, but... that would be a blatant lie and I really, really do not want to end up in jail for copyright issues... :(_

_Ekaterina's Note: Heya all! Since we took so long updating the last chapter, we will try our very best to get this one out faster :) Hmmm... I'm looking for amazing Anime Music Videos (amv s) that are not from Naruto, Bleach, or Once Piece.. If you have any suggestions I would be absolutely delighted! Thank you very much... Ah, summer is so fun, I get to do whatever I want Though at times it can be a bit dull... haha anyways, onwards! xD _

_Amber's Note: Er...well, I feel as if I owe you guys a pretty big apology for our late updates recently, so here I am. And also, I wouldn't want you forgetting about me here! So here I am, melting in this hot hot summer and gosh, I really want a popsicle. Anyone out there have a spare popsicle? I'd really appreciate it..._

Adrian was confused. He was very confused. What had started out as a delightful ball with the lovely Gryffindor that he had always wanted to talk to had turned into a frantic and tearful search for her guardian-like cat. Now he was in the kitchens (it made him wonder, how did all of these supposed boring non-troublemakes even know so many ways about the castle...) with her friends, and quite frankly they were not sane. Not one bloody bit sane and it was freaking him out.

"Right all, we should have a good plan! We shall call this operation: Plan Death and Murder! Any objections?" Lara declared with a bossy tone. Adrian opened his mouth to ask a question but was promptly cut off. "Brilliant, then we can proceed."

Adrian sighed. Were all of these innocent looking girls this demanding? What he had mistaken to be a group of boring, very uninteresting girls that focused on their grades and looks was actually a group of hyper, chocolate crazy, slightly creepy (just slightly, no big deal), ditzy peoples. Except Nadia, of course. Nadia defied everything he just said. 'Cause Nadia was special...

"Right, so a brief review on what we want to do," started Lily. "Well, first off- we want to get our loving Death back. Second, we want some sort of retaliation on that dark haired beauty of a beast. Is that clear? So, as for revenge, there are some really... unique things I had in mind..."

Around this time, a certain group of troublemakers were running away from an angry Filch and Mrs. Norris. on the floor just above the group that was beginning Operation Plan Death and Murder. Actually, more correctly, Remus was walking fast with his face buried in a book, Sirius was running backwards and shouting encouragements to Filch, saying things like "Put some effort into it!" or "Work those skinny legs!", and James was busy continuing their trail of havoc by casually tossing pieces of meat on the floor every couple meters or so.

They had managed to untether the thestrals with every intention of getting them to the very top of the Astronomy Tower without using magic or flying. Three fourths of the male population had joined in the betting. Sadly enough, a large majority of them believed that they could do it. And they probably would have, if a dark haired maiden covered in scratches and holding a wailing cat rather impolitely ran by, scaring the thestrals. One of them ran into Sirius, the furthest behind due to his taunting.

"What the-" he began, unable to finish his sentence before he was squished unceremoniously between to thestrals that could have used some dieting. The thestrals, already agitated, let out a shrill whinny and tossed Sirius to the floor and charged on, stampeding the unfortunate janitor and his cat and carrying them to the far side of the Forbidden Forest where they would be found by a very confused Hagrid the next day.

Unfortunately, the floor could already just barely hold the weight of a growing teenager like Sirius who could easily eat a pile of food three times larger than himself. The combined force of Sirius's weight and the force of the thestral's throw brought him crashing down to the floor below him, but not before leaving a beautiful outline of Sirius's body in the floor above. James and Lupin came to a screeching halt. James peered down into the hole.

"Sirius! Oi, Sirius!" James shouted. "Are you alright? SIRI-"

"Quit your yappin! My head hurts and you're makin' it worse than it already is!"

"Sorry." James grinned apologetically as he stared down at Sirius, who was making his way out of a pile of rubble. He did have a rather painful looking bump on his head, which was probably his source of irritation.  
"Oi, do you think you can make it back up here, Sirius?" James asked.  
Sirius groaned and rubbed his head. "I honestly don't think so." he muttered. "But if you guys want, I'll try."  
"Nah," James said grinning, "Moony and your ever loving Prongs will go down there and fetch you. Honestly, Padfoot, you can't do anything without us, can you?"  
Sirius was too tired to argue. "Just get me up, will ya? I can hear a group of people coming and I don't want my reputation to be ruined."

"Can't you wait a bit longer?" James asked. "I'm savoring this moment."

"Savoring what?" growled Sirius irritably.

"Well, I'm looking down on you."

"Sorry, didn't catch that. Thought you said you were looking down on me."

"Well, as a matter of fact, I did!"

"You're doing WHAT?" Sirius shouted, then winced as a sharp pain shot through his head. "Whatever." he muttered. "Just get me out."

James realized that if his taunt had been ignored, then Sirius must be in more trouble then he expected. But unfortunately for all three boys, especially James, the group of people came closer.

"Got it," he sighed. "I'm coming down."

"What in the name of Merlin did you guys do this time?" a very familiar voice asked in bewilderment. The three boys looked to see Lara, followed by Nadia, Alice, Lily, and a boy unknown to them.

"Lily!" James said happily. "Nice to see you!"

The group looked at the mess that three boys managed to make and sighed, all thinking mentally, "They've done it again." Adrian's thoughts were accompanied by one more. "They're friends of _these_ three? No wonder they knew so many ways in and out of the castle. And no wonder they're only half sane... Maybe Pomfrey should take a look at them..."

"James," Remus said, "I think we should get Sirius out of there and to Madam Pomfrey soon." Adrian sighed with relief,at least they understood the extend of their stupidity.

James, thrilled in seeing Lily, made the stupid mistake of trying to show off for her using Remus.

"You mediocre dunce! What sort of pathetic fool would want to wallow in the horrible administrations of the devious Madam Pomfrey? Pray, I fear your own mind has been lost and a simple knock to the skull should fix you up. Although, then again, your personality is such that no amount of knocking could ever bring you back..." James spoke with a sort of formal pompt that set Adrian into even more confusion, Lara to a facepalm, Lily to extreme embarrassment, and Alice to mild interest.

Remus shut his book with a snap, and shot an evil look at James.

" What was that?" Remus asked in a dangerously low voice. His usually placid demeanour was gone; replaced by an eerie cold aura, and his eyes could have frozen beer at that moment. James shivered, immediately regretting picking a fight with him. Sirius slapped his forehead.

"The stupid idiot." he muttered. "He's gone and done it again."

"Done what?" chorused the newcomers, who had never seen Remus angry before and were slightly disturbed.

"What do you think?" Sirius jabbed a finger towards the hole and gave a shudder. "He just opened Pandora's box."

The group watched in silent horror as they watched a scene worthy of an Oscar winning horror movie. In short, watching an innocent floating feather tickle James to the point of insanity while an army of enchanted teddybears gave him "massages" in which his bones made odd creaking noises.

James lay sprawled in a heap directly next to the hole. "I'm sorry, oh mighty lord!" he gasped. "I have spoken out against your will, please forgive me."

Remus glanced over at James. "Have you reflected upon your deeds?"

James's head bobbled up and down. Remus nodded in satisfaction.

"Good," he said. "Then that makes up for all the past pranks you've played on me."

James head jerked up. "Wait..." he said, his feeling of dread growing larger. "What about for just now?"

Remus smiled, but it just didn't quite reach his eyes. Who am I kidding? He missed it by a mile.

"Today's punishment hasn't even started," Remus said. "Let's see..."

His eyes wandered around the room and landed on James, who, may I remind you one more time, was directly next to the hole. His body was too tired to move, therefore unable to retaliate. Remus grinned.

"Yes," he murmured to himself. "Yes, that'll do."

James had never felt so sorry for a single statement in his life.

"Wait! What are you doing!" he asked with increasing panic as Remus advanced closer to him. The realization of what he was about to do hit him. "NO!" he screamed. "Don't do it!"

Remus reached James, and, with an evil smile, conjured a plethora of crocodiles and sent them chasing after our poor misguided hero.

His task completed, Remus conjured up a ladder and climbed down to where Sirius lie calmly. When he reached the end, he stretched and grinned at Sirius, who lay below. "That felt good."

Sirius had a piano of a smile on his face. "I bet it did. Now then, mind giving me a hand here?"

The hospital wing had six new patients that day. One was crushed by thestrals and fell, another was tickled to death and massaged and then sent for "running excercises", and four more requested assistance for extreme trauma.


	22. Chapter 22: Our Dear Sweet Alice

_Ekaterina's disclaimer: After 21 chapters worth of disclaimers, it gets reaaaaally hard to think of a witty one. -_- Forgive the terseness, but we do not own Harry Potter. All rights to JK Rowling._

_Amber's disclaimer: Er...well, I've never written one of these before (gasp!) but I figured I might as well start doing one...don't ask why. I guess it's that annoying thing called a conscience telling me to write this thing and not claim J.K Rowling's awesome books all for my lonesome. But the wand is mine! *is whacked on the head by Mimiona with a painful metal stick (not yet, but I'm sure she will) and the sweet Ekaterina and Blossom trample me to death (not the kitty. Anything but the kitty.) Btw, that kitty has three white rings on its tail. So, people, if you don't want to face the same painful death I did (and hurt the kitty. Don't you DARE hurt Death!) I recommend that you not steal J.K Rowlings characters or wands (sigh), ne~? _

_Blossom's disclaimer: We don't own Harry Potter books, movies, characters, spells, creatures, plots...well, you get the point. All rights to Rowling. Also, I will not trample Amber to death... Really! I am a very sweet person!_

_Ekaterina's note: Hmmm, I rather liked the end of the last chapter. Dearest Amber, I would never trample you! I would find a more... amusing way of getting you mad like I always do. "I refuse to watch Soul Eater" will probably cause more strife than anything... :D haha, poor James, being chased by crocodiles, tickled to death, and traumatized by a giant teddy bear... Remus really can be cruel when he wants O.o Yeah, so we want to include ourselves in the story like we did before (nothing major but there none the less) but can't seem to think of a situation to place ourselves in :3 Anyhow, Now presenting Chapter 22. _

_Amber to Ekaterina: Crocodiles? Really? I swear, you might be even more evil than Remus himself. _

_Ekaterina to Amber- Haha, wouldn't you love to know what I have in store... :D If only I had magic... mwhaha_

"How's Nadia?" Alice asked, twirling into the Gryffindor common room where she spent the majority of her time atudiyng and talking with her friends. Really, it was a mystery why she was placed into Slytherin.

Lily sighed and motioned toward a sulky Nadia. She was sitting on a couch staring up in to nothing in particular. "She's been like that ever since...ever since Death has been with that Shantall...URGH!"

"Guys, this is not the time to be studying for this Transfiguration test! To heck with it! We need to retrieve our Death from that evil Shantall!" Lara declared, bolting up from her seat, causing her books and scrolls to topple onto the floor.

"AGREED!" yelled Alice, jumping up and down.  
"Huh? But the test..." said Lily, but put her books down and stood up. "Oh, whatever, I've studied for the past week, so I think that'll do..."  
"Of course that'll do, of course! Now, if you get less than a 105% on it, I'm a Squib!" Lara said, high-fiving Lily.

"Let's go! TO RESCUE DEATH!" the girls screamed and ran out of the room. About two minutes later, they rushed back, grabbed a blank-faced Nadia, and dragged her out with them.  
So that was why they were facing a snobby Shantall in the hallways about three minutes later.

"Shantall, you evil thing, how could you?" Lily started, her angry face almost as red as her hair.

"Me? What? What did I do?" Shantall smirked and answered innocently.

Lara's face flushed. "You know what you did! You know!"

"Now, do I?" Shantall replied, looking around to see a group of students forming a circle around them.  
"Or, are you too stupid to know?" Alice asked, all the while tap dancing.

"Alice, if I'm stupid, what are you? Mentally retarded?" Shantall said, shrugging. "And could we please have this conversation indoors?"

"What if I say no?" Lily asked. "I don't see what's wrong with holding it here," she said, looking around. "Unless you have something to hide." She glared at Shantall, who didn't even flinch.

Shantall laughed and said, "Okay, well if that's how you're going to do it. Don't tell me I didn't warn you."

Lara narrowed her eyes. This had a major possibility of not going their way, if things got ugly she would prefer to have more people to back her up.

Someone poked her. "What?" she growled.

"Don't worry about it, we got your back," Lily said, flashing a smile and taking a step forward to be aligned with Lara.

"LILY! HOW ON EARTH DO YOU READ PEOPLE'S MINDS?"

"Oh, no, not this again," Lily mumbled. "Oh, come on, Lara," she spoke in a louder whisper, "we'll talk about this a little later."

"Huh? Oh yeah, okay..." Lara said, shrugging and turned her attention back to Shantall.

Shantall glared back at Lara. "Get side-tracked much?" she said, tousling her perfect hair.

"Anyway, you stole Death and you know it!" Lily came to the rescue as Lara stammered a little.

"Yeah? Are you sure about that?" Shantall asked.

"Oh yes we're sure! POSITIVE!" Lara roared.

Shantall shrugged. "Well, I did recently get a kitten. Such an adowable little ball of fur..."

"Yeah right. You mean you STOLE a kitten recently. Death. You stole her!" Alice said, dancing over to Shantall and patting her head.

"Don't touch me!" Shantall said shrilly and pushed Alice away from her. "Disgusting. Shame of the entire Slytherin house!"

Alice giggled and said cheerfully, "Oh, Shantall, I didn't know you danced, too!"

"UGH! I can't stand that disgrace talking to me! You!" She pointed to Lara. "Do something about her!"

Lara was boiling in anger. "Alice is worth more than that crappy thing standing in front of me!" She pulled out her wand and yelled, "Furnunculus!"

Shantall laughed easily as she said, "Finite Incantatum," with a flick of her wand, and the spell was stopped.

"Think your so smart? You watch out," Lily said. "And Lara, calm down. It won't work if you hurt her. You don't want this to get to Professor Dumbledore, do you?" She pat Lara's back.

"Yeah, Lara. You don't want to get in big, big trouble by oh-so-scary-Dumbodork, do you? Listen to your friend, Lara. And learn some anger management, will you? Do you need a therapist?" Shantall mocked.

Lara would have charged Shantall like an angry bull except that Alice was holding onto her and ballroom dancing.

"That's enough, Shantall. Don't act like a five year old. Besides, there's a much simpler way to prove that you have Death-"

"-or that I don't," Shantall interrupted.

"Right. So just bring this kitten of yours out. Everyone knows what Death looks like and that Nadia owns her," Lily said sensibly, even though inside, she was just as raving mad as Lara, or even more. Because right now she really wanted to pull out every perfect strand of hair on that perfect head of that girl.

"Fine. SNOWFLAKE, COME HERE!" Shantall called loudly.

"What the heck?" Lara asked, "she named her Snowflake? A pure black-Oh, Merlin. WHAT DID SHE DO TO THAT CAT?"

Lily turned around to face Shantall holding a small, pure WHITE ball of fur with crystal blue eyes. She gasped, "Oh, dear Merlin..."

"Here's my Snowflake. So, do you think she's your Death, Nadia?" Shantall asked, smiling wickedly. "Wasn't Death black? And had green eyes?"

"SHANTALL, WHAT THE **** DID YOU DO TO MY DEATH!" Nadia seemed to have finally broken out of her spell when she saw her cat.

"There's another one that needs a therapist..." Shantall said mildly.

Nadia was in a rampage, tears pouring down her face."GO DIE AND BURN IN HELL! AVADA KEDAVRA! CRUCIO! AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Shantall didn't even flinch. "Oh, come on. Don't tell me you're trying to kill me with no wand..."

There was a wave laughter from the crowds.

"GO DIE! STOP BEING THE SCUM YOU ARE AND ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING USEFUL FOR ONCE! FILTH!" Lara joined.

"What did you just call me?" Shantall said, her eyes widening.

"DIRT! LESS THAN FILTH! YOU DON'T EVEN DESERVE THESE WORDS!" Nadia shrieked. Her eyes fell on Death. "Oh, Death! Come! Come to me!" She beckoned with her hands, her eyes imploring.

The white cat merely mewed and turned away.

"See? It doesn't like you," Shantall said, cuddling white Death in her arms. "And what kind of cat doesn't like its owner, huh?"

Lily grabbed Lara, Alice, and Nadia into a huddle.

"What on earth...?" she asked in an astonished tone. "OK. So what happened?"

"Isn't it obvious? Shantall bewitched Death to hate us and then turned her white! PURE WHITE! And named Snow-whatever," Nadia said. She looked like she wanted to cry some more.

"It's okay, it's okay," Lara said soothingly. "Nothing to worry about, 'k, Nadia? We'll get Death if it's the last thing we do!"

Alice smiled broadly. "How?"

There was a long silence.

"Aha...good question, Alice. So, how?" Lily asked again.

And there was another long silence.

It was Lara, always impatient, who broke it. "Oh, whatever. Let's just grab the cat and go!"

"Oh, Lara, stop being so simplistic. That is OBVIOUSLY NOT going to work since 'the cat' hates us!" Lily said sensibly.

Lara was quiet. Then she said, "Well, anyone got a better idea?"  
No one answered.

Lara voiced her triumph."HA! So you can't really say anything about mine!"

"Alrighty, you win, Lara. But it still won't work. We need a plan," Lily announced.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" Lara said, giggling. "Yeah, Lily, I really didn't know that."

"LARA! You..." Lily said, but she was laughing, too.

Nadia had a mean look on her face as she said quietly, "AHEM."

"Huh? Oh, yeah..." Lily said apologetically.

Nadia took charge immediately. "Look. People are waiting. And they all," she motioned to all the people around them, trying to listen in on their conversation, "think we are: 1) out of our minds, 2) crazy, 3) insane, or 4) ready to kill. And we can't exactly blame them, because all the evidence points against us. Death hates me..." Here Nadia's voice trembled, but it soon returned to her regular tone, "and she is white, whereas everyone knows my Death is black! So we can't talk about this right now.

You two," she glared at Lara and Lily, "should have made a plan before coming out here and confronting Shantall."

"Excuse me? Who was the one who was staring into space for 48 hours straight and NOT helping us at all?" Lily said matter-of-factly.

Nadia ignored her. "Don't under-estimate that girl Shantall. She has got some brains under that pretty head and she will use those brains. Right now, we lost. It doesn't matter that we called her filth and all the things that she totally deserves, since we can't get Death back. Okay? The plan now is retreat until we have an idea."

"Alright," nodded Lily. "So, on the count of three, run to the common room," she whispered

.

"Gotcha!" Alice proceeded to sit on the floor.

Lily sighed. "Lara, will you pull Alice along with you?"

Lara nodded. "Sure. Alice, now, get up, and hold my hand..."

"One, two...THREE!" Lily yelled, and the four girls ran.

"MOVE!" Nadia screamed as she ripped through the crowd in the lead.

"ARGH!" a Ravenclaw screamed as he stumbled back, causing a domino effect as a whole line of students fell onto each other.

Lily followed Nadia, sprinting as fast as she could, Lara and Alice making up the rear end of the line. People were staring and whispering amongst themselves, questioning the sanity of those before them, as Shantall stood holding her "Snowflake" in her arms. There was an uncertain look on her pretty face as the four charged at her.

She was under the impression that they were going to knock her over then get suspended for assault. Instead, next thing she knew, James Potter was casually lifting the cat out of her arms and walking away. She looked to see the four girls running toward the Gryffindor common room and James following with Death in his arms. As expected, many jaws dropped, including Shantall's.

The last thing she saw before going into mass hysteria over having been so close to James Potter, was Alice, dear sweet Alice, turning around just before they rounded a corner and flipping her off.


	23. Chapter 23: Fried Shrimp

Chapter 23

_**Blossom's Disclaimer:**_ _As much as all of us would like to say that Rowling stole Harry Potter from us, and we are the real owners of the wonderful series, the little angel in our hearts won't let us. Oh, well. _

_**Ekaterina's Note:**_ _Gosh, being in a different time zone and on vacation makes your really unmotivated :P If you guys review more and often, then I think all of us would like to spout chapters more often 333 Reviews pleeeeaaaaase~ they make me very very very happy. _

_(By the way, for any Bollywood fans, did anyone notice that the song 'aacha lagtha hai' from Aarakshan was 100% Tonks/Remus? I was absolutely delighted. Oh. And the song from Mausam- the one where he practically stalks her but it's still cute- made me think of James/Lily... Just saying! :D ) OH, and I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes... watching Tom Felton as that creep was like watching a sadistic Malfoy... :(_

Lily raced down the halls toward the Gryffindor common room. Alice hopped nimbly into the portait hole after hole, Lara and Nadia followed behind, clutching their sides and panting.

Lily glanced behind since the first time she had started to follow James, "Oh... You guys really do need to get into shape..."

Lara glared daggers at her, "Says the girl who gets personal quidditch training from the captain hisself..."

"Mate... you... really... need... to... learn how to... slow down..." Nadia was grasping the plush chairs by the fire for support,

"Ahaha... yeaaaaah..." Lily giggled a bit then turned around to find James. She frowned when he wasn't in sight. "Hey... did anyone notice where James went off to with Death?"

"Well, to get us is a pretty reasonable answer," came a lazy response from the top of the boys dormitories.  
Lara beamed, "Sirius!"

"The one and only," he gave a smug smile which immediately disappeared when Lara whacked him upside the head.

"I bet the nargles have clouded darling's mind and made her think that she's a white cat who hates us. The hating must be from warlinknurls, they are horribly harmful to the mind," analyzed Alice.

"Come again-" started Sirius uncertainly.

"What she means is that it is not what we thought, luckily the Imperius curse was not used. Instead it is a simply disillusionment spell that works differently on cats, changing color rather that making them invisible. As for the hating part-" Remus translated.

"She must have managed to make our clothes smell like... mm... probably a sickening amount of whatever Death doesn't like... what doesn't Death like?" finished Lily.

Nadia gave a thankful smile, "Fried shrimp... Death hates fried shrimp..."

"Er, then I guess we- ah no, you guys, just don't have to smell like fried shrimp then..." concluded James thoughtfully.

Everyone looked at each other and burst into hysterical laughter at the anticlimatic end to their disastrous adventure.

"Of all things keeping us from darling, it was fried shrimp.!" giggled Alice, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes.

Gasping for breath, Nadia stopped for a moment, her mouth a perfect 'o,' "Ah, I forgot all about Adrian! He was searching for Death too, and he was looking up spells, and- Oh dear, oh dear, Death, come here love, let's go find him."

"Ah wait, you forgot-" Lily winced as Death yowled and raced out of Nadia's arms, still a shrimp avoiding white cat. "You forgot to take off the spells..."

"Oh shi-" Lara raced after Death as she raced out of the common room, past entering (and extremely startled) students.

"Bloody cat causes too much trouble," growled Sirius.

"Yes, yes it does," agreed Remus as he joined the chase.

Lily grabbed James and pulled him aside, "Okay, no one else is going to listen, so I need you to do me a favor..."

"DEEEEEAAAAAAAATH, COME BACK!" called Nadia.

"NAAAAADIAAAAA, WAIT UP!" Lara called after her.

"LAAAARAAAA, I HATE THAT BLOODY CAT!" Sirius yelled after them.

"DAAAARLING, COME TO ME, I DON'T LIKE SHRIMP EITHER!" Alice tried to coax.

"WHY DON'T THE GUYS GET THE DAMN CAT SINCE WE DON'T BLOODY SMELL LIKE FRIED SHRIMP?" Remus cried in exasperation.

"Way ahead of you guys there," James and Lily stepped out in front of where Death was headed.

"Death... I have the most delightful sardines for you..." called out James cautiously.

"Come on, your favorite... sardines!" Lily called out. "And I don't smell like fried shrimp! I changed the spell to catnip."

Lara stopped running and gaped at Lily, "Oh... OH. Oh yeah, I could have changed it too... God I feel so stupid..."

"Deaaaaaath!" Alice practically purred (fitting, eh?) the name while skipping towards the cat airily. Mewling with fear, Death propelled herself into James.

"Gotcha!" he cried triumphantly.

Three hours after their now highly public adventure, the group sat exhausted in the kitchens.

"Really, the things I do for you," Nadia crooned at Death while feeding her sardines.

"Glad you realized it," said Sirius dryly.

"Shut up Padfoot, wouldn't you do that for Lara's owl?" James asked.

Sirius's answer was immediate, "Hell no!"

Lara looked at Sirius with a highly offended look on her face. "Well guess what! I wouldn't give a piece of my eyelash to _your_ owl if it would save your _life_!" she snapped.

Sirius stared, "Your... eyelash?"

"Well, yes, my eyelash!" she replied, her face flushing.

Trying to stifle his laughter, Sirius nodded in what would never pass as a serious manner. "I...see...?"

"You might not be catching this, but I'm actually serious right now." Lara glared furiously at Sirius, muttering under her breath, "Blithering idiot."

Upon hearing this , Sirius' face hardened. "I heard that, you know."

"Uh-huh. Whatever."

Sirius stared at Lara's face, his expression softening as he realized she was really mad. "Lara, why are you-"

"Shut up. I don't care to hear your voice right now." Lara, who was sitting next to Sirius, scooted as far as she could away from him.

Sirius was taken aback. Looking for a solution, he turned to face Lily questioningly.

Exasperated, Lily mouthed to him, "Apologize!"

"What? No! Not my fault!" he mouthed back.

She glared at him and proceeded to move away too.

James prodded him a bit and nodded towards Lara with an 'apologize or she'll kill you' face.

Scowling, Sirius sniffed and left the table. Lara looked up in shock, she had expected him to realize his mistake and apologize, not walk away. She turned to Lily and Alice, concern and panic speckled in her amber eyes. Alice put a comforting hand on her arm and gave a warm smile while Lily motioned for her to follow. However, the moment Lara stood up Sirius came back into the room. Everyone was silent, James looked relieved and nodded his approval for apologizing.

Sirius nodded curtly and looked to Lara again."I'm sorry..."

Lara turned around to face him. "Do you know what you're even sorry for?" she demanded.

"Wha...? Me, I- I-" Sirius glared at Lily. She shrugged and looked away. "I don't know... but I'm sorry for whatever I did!" Sirius finally answered.

Lara laughed dryly. "You don't know anything, right? NOTHING! Not even how I might ever feel!"

Sirius' face reddened. "And you? Do you know anything? You don't even know that your boyfriend doesn't HAVE an owl to offer a piece of your eyelash to!" yelled Sirius, standing up.

"Who are you calling _boyfriend? _Yourself?" Lara snorted, also standing up to face Sirius. "Are you kid-"

"Chill, chill," interrupted Remus, chuckling dryly, "We don't want to put of with you love birds having an argument at this moment."

Sirius cleared his throat awkwardly and sat down promptly, but Lara continued to stand, breathing heavily and glaring at Sirius with such piercing eyes that Lily pulled on her robes until she sat down.

Lily and James were sitting down by the lake to avoid all the tension, everyone in the Gryffindor house was taking sides on the Lara/Sirius dispute. Fangirls for Sirius and fanboys for Lara. The extent of their affairs was so widely spread that even some Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had taken side, a couple of Slytherins (much to general shock) had expressed their support for Lara as Sirius should have been more gentlemanly. But as Sirius secretly admitted to James and Remus, he still didn't know exactly what he had done wrong.

"They really are pretty upset, huh..." said Lily.

"Mm, yeah..." responded James, playing with her hair.

"It started with something so small too... he should have remembered that her last owl was killed during a Death Eater raid..."

"The thing with Sirius is that he doesn't quite think," James said thoughtfully.

"Hm, yeah..." They watched the setting sun slowly sink over the calm waters of the lake, it was an unusually warm day for November. As they sat peacefully, they noticed Alice and Remus sitting some distance away under a tree. They appeared to be laughing and talking about something unknown to Lily and James.

"So peaceful," murmured Lily drowsily.

"Yeah..."

"I like thestrals a lot, you see... I can't see them, but I can feel them," Alice said.

"I know what you mean, it's sort of a cold yet warm feeling, right?" Remus asked.

"That's right! Most people don't feel it really..."

"I have an interest in magical creatures, especially ones that have to do with dark arts," he explained. Alice laughed and shook her head then leaned against him. He laughed at her knack for knowing just how he was feeling.

Nadia hurried down the halls, Death at her feet as usual, with a small package in her hands. She peeked into the library desperately hoping that the person she was looking for would be there. Hah, he was! Uncertainly, she walked towards him and abruptly placed the package in front of him.

"Er... Um... I. I just... I guess I just wanted to say thank you for looking for Death and everything," she managed to get out.

He blushed a bit, "Oh! Um, thanks... you really didn't have to!"

She smiled, "It's okay..."

"I heard about your friends' fight... I hope everything sorts itself out."

She snorted in an unladylike manner, "Who hasn't heard about it? Hmph, knowing them they will have some sort of war that will end up with one of them dead or worse!"

Adrian laughed, most people would not prioritize something as worse than death, "Hey, if you're not busy, let's go for a walk!"

Nadia looked startled for a moment then, with a bright smile, gave her consent.

The next morning, bright and early, the indignant quacks of a very, very, hysterical pink duck were heard all throughout the castle. It waddled down the staircase, it's pink wings fluttering every so often to maintain balance. The crowd of students gathered down beneath with interest, wondering if this was some new stunt to get them interested in studying. However, when a giant banner accompanied by fireworks dropped down, the whole school was seen grinning for the rest of the day. It was even rumored that even Professor McGonnagal had smiled when banner flew down and had delayed as much as possible the transfiguration of the duck back into the wailing and sobbing Shantall.

General A/N: Oh Merlin, the last Harry Potter movie was simply brilliant! I (Ekaterina) was broken down when Remus and Tonks died D: I might have a new songfic idea for them :D Haha, and thanks to good friend of ours, I have been converted from a Dramione shipper to a Fremione shipper... I now sail the pages of Fremione fanfics in great delight~ recommendations are welcome! Especially works you guys have written~!


	24. Chapter 24: Boggarts and Cupboards

Chapter 24

_**Ekaterina's disclaimer: **__We solemnly swear that we do not own Harry Potter~_

_**Ekaterina's note**__: HIIIIII! Ugh, it's so sad that summer is practically over :l Ah, oh well, the joys of high school now await as does loads of homework -_- OH MY MERLIN. We saw Harry Potter 7 Part 2 today again, but with Mimiona and Blossom this time (and a bunch of school friends that do not work on this story) and seriously, we talked, laughed, commented, and sobbed through the entire movie~ thank goodness the theater was practically empty! I want to cry for a lot of parts, but my nature is such that I have a hard time with more depressing emotions :l What really set me off this time was when Snape said~ 'always...' to Dumbledore and showed his patronus :( WAAAAAH! Ugh... anynow, we are getting to the end of this story for sure this time by mutual consent, so as much love as I can convey through these notes. _

"Did you make up with Lara?" Remus asked Sirius, getting out his _Advanced Potions_ book.

Sirius sighed. "What do you think?" he asked in an unusually grouchy voice.

"Alright, okay, no need to be so cranky!" Remus muttered under his breath. Then, speaking aloud, "Get your book out, Padfoot."

"Huh? Why?"

"Earth to Sirius! We have double Potions today, remember? With the Hufflepuffs!"

"Eh? Oh, okay."

"Lily! Lily! Lily!"

She didn't need to turn around to see who it was. "What?" she said, exasperated.

"Lily! Lily! Lily!" James sang.

"Oh, stop it. I have to get ready for class. We're making the Truth Serum today!" Lily said in an annoyed voice, continuing to read her _Advanced Potions_ book and refusing to turn around to face him.

"So what? You'll make the best one in the class anyway!" James commented, causing Lily's face to flush bright red.

"Oh, but I have to _prepare-_"

"Oh, no you do _not_!" James said, poking Lily on her back.

"Ack!" Lily shrieked, turning on her heel. "Ja-" She found herself only a couple inches from James. Her emerald eyes widened as she stared into his dark eyes. After a moment of awkward silence, she stammered, "I, uh, have to, uh... um... read!" She rushed to her desk, pulled out _Hogwarts, a History _from her tote bag, and proceeded to read it- upside down.

"Remus! Do you hear the Nargles? They're all around! All around!" Alice said excitedly, jumping up and down. She reached out and waved her hands everywhere, thwacking Remus on the head.

"OUCH!" Remus cried.

"Ooh, that must have hurt!" Alice said, leaping to him. "I was just trying to catch a Nargle. I was going to ask it if it would show me its true form..."

"No, it's okay," Remus said, laughing in spite of the bruise starting to appear on his forehead. "Here! I caught one!" he cried, reaching out to "catch" something, and handing it to Alice.

Lara was sitting at her desk quietly, peering into her Potions book in silence. Sirius sat in his own desk, which happened to be next to her's, silent as well, but staring openly at Lara with an apologetic look on his face.

After a moment or two, Lara looked up, caught Sirius' eyes, and looked away uncomfortably, she would never admit to the light blush on her cheeks.

* * *

Nadia was sitting with Death in her lap at her desk in the corner of the room. Adrian sat next to her quietly, looking at her figure wordlessly, but with a slight grin on his face. Nadia did seem to notice his presence, from the slight pink in her cheeks, but she didn't seem to mind at all.

"Class! Come to order!" Professor Slughorn said, licking his fingers after a mouthful of crystallized students' chatter gradually died down to a silence.

"Okay, today we're making the-"

"Truth Serum!" exclaimed Lily, her hand shooting up.

"That's correct. Five points to Gryffindor," Professor Slughorn said, smiling. "Okay, then, pair up into twos to make the serum. Materials are in the cupboard; directions are on page 67 of your _Advanced Potions_ book. You may start." With that, he went back to snacking on his pineapples.

"Lara!"

It was a familiar voice. Lara didn't want to answer- or did she? Her face flushed as she thought of this and, instead of answering, called to Lily instead:

"Hey, Lily! Wanna make the serum with me?"

Lily looked from Lara's pink face to Sirius' saddened one."Heh, I'd love to but I'm making it with- with...James!" she finally said, pointing to James who had been beside her, patiently awaiting the right time to ask her to make the serum with him.

James' eyes widened. "Me?" Lily jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow. "Oh, yeah, we are! Of course!" He grabbed Lily's arm. "See? We're partners!" he exclaimed. "Let's go to get the materials!"

With that the two made their way to the cupboard without arguing-for the first time ever.

Lara sighed. "Nadi-" She stopped as she noticed Nadia and Adrian peering into the book together. "Alice?" she groaned. She didn't need to look to know that she was with Remus already. Lara looked through the entire room, but all the other students had paired up-leaving to only available person to be none other than Sirius.

"Lara?" Sirius asked cautiously.

Lara sighed. "What?" she growled and grabbed her Potions book, furiously flipping to page 67 (almost ripping the book in the process). "Here!" She threw it to Sirius, who caught it with a broad smile. "Get the stuff."

* * *

"Evil! You're evil, Lily!" Lara said shrilly the moment she was alone with Nadia, Lily, and Alice.

"What? What did I do?" Lily asked innocently, grinning broadly.

"What did you do? What did you do?" Lara demanded, her face beet red. "You paired me up with Sirius! On purpose! That's what you did, Miss Angelic-Looking-Evil-Witch!"

Lily laughed. "I did not! You were the one always bugging me to pair up with James, so I did!"

Lara was quiet. "Point taken," she finally said.

"Okay then, how was Potions with your _boyfriend_?" teased Nadia.

"You be quiet!"

"Well, how was it?" asked Alice, dancing around daintily.

"Horrid, thanks to _someone_!"

"Hey," Lily recalled, "you were having a good time! He made you laugh a couple times, although you didn't let him see, and-"

"Sure. Sure. And I'm a hippopotamus!" Lara retorted.

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Hmm...I don't know, you might be... Lara the Hippo... very catchy!"

"LILY!"

"Okay, okay, you're not a hippo. But you can't fool us into thinking that you don't like Sirius. It's time you forgave him for saying that about your owl. Lara, you love him! I can see it in your eyes. I can feel it! You're my best friend. Stop trying to fool us-and yourself." As Lily said this, Lara's eyes filled up with tears.

"But-but, I can't! How could he say that about (insert owl's name)! It's just...he doesn't seem to have any interest in my feelings whatsoever! I just can't!"

"Lara," Lily said, giving her friend a hug, "you know you can-you already have! Just let yourself admit it, it's-"

"No." Lara's voice was cold. "I won't forgive him. No, I _can't_ forgive him! I don't love him. I won't love him!"

Lily smiled. "Well, we'll see about that." She held up a small flask.

"Ooh! What is that?" Alice asked, bursting with curiosity as usual.

"This," said Lily with a grin, "is the Truth Serum. Let's see...if I just sprinkle a couple drops into your oatmeal at breakfast..."  
"Oh, you would not!"

"Oh yes I would!"

Lara looked around nervously. "Well what if it's not properly made? That's the one that you made, right? What if you did something wrong? What if I get sick because of it, and I die? Wouldn't you be guilt-ridden?"

Lily chuckled. "Nice try, love. But you know that Slughorn said my serum was perfect." She grinned broadly. "I slipped a little flask of it into my robes...for this purpose precisely."

"What did I say about you being evil?" Lara muttered. "Lily, my answer remains the same. And don't you dare try using that thing on me!"

"Today, students, we will be studying boggarts," announced the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Mildan.

The entire class groaned as there was a loud banging noise from Professor Mildan's desk drawers and the desk shook violently.

"Sir! We already covered that, like some years ago!" some Gryffindor named Tyler said, holding up his hand.

"I understand you have covered this lesson already, but as practice makes perfect, and it's never bad to review, we will be doing so again. Since you seem to be so knowledgeable about boggarts, why don't you tell me: what is a boggart, exactly?"

"Uh, doesn't it, like, change shapes and stuff...?" he answered.

"Correct. So you children do keep some of the things you learn at Hogwarts in your head..." the professor muttered, causing the students to laugh and whisper. "Anyway, a boggart is a shape-shifter that changes into the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us the most. The spell to repel it is _Riddikulus. _When the boggart faces you in the form of what scares you the most, as it will to each of the students here, point your wand at it and say _Riddukulus!_ while concentrating on making it look comical and funny. For you see, what defeats a boggart is laughter. I'm sure you all remember this from your third year? Okay, then, Tyler, why don't we start with you?"

With that, he pointed his wand at the desk. Jets of sparks flew from its end and hit the drawers with a boom. The drawers burst open and from them emerged a werewolf.

"_Riddikulus!_" yelled Tyler, and there was a loud crack. The werewolf was dressed up as Red Riding Hood's grandmother.

There was a loud roar of laughter as the boggart turned to the next student. And so on it went on. The boggart became a mummy, which started tap-dancing-a huge rat, which started doing circus tricks-a Basilisk, which lost both its eyes.

"You're doing well; it's confused because there are so many of you," said Professor Mildan.

The boggart, now in the form of a tiger with pink and blue stripes, faced Nadia. It immediately turned into a fluffy white cat-Snowflake-that was feasting on a bowl of fired shrimp next to a smirking Shantall.

"Death! NO!" yelled Nadia in hysteria.

Lily took a hold of her. "It's a boggart! Hurry and say the spell!"

Nadia nodded shakily but pointed the wand at Snowflake the Boggart and said, "_Ri-Riddikulus_!"

Shantall was transformed into a duck, causing a lot of laughter and giggles.

The boggart turned to face Sirius next. As it changed into what Sirius feared the most, Lara gasped audibly as the rest of the class was silenced immediately. She stumbled back as she faced the cold and dead body of herself. Blood was splattered everywhere, her eyes were only half-shut.

She turned to look at Sirius, who was facing the dead body of herself, frozen with fear, a small tear starting to roll down his panicked face. Her face streaming with hot tears, Lara dashed out of the classroom.

"Oh, do something about Lara! She hasn't eaten a thing since yesterday's DADA class, and she's been like that this entire morning!" Lily whispered, peering at her best friend who was sitting on a chair in the Gryffindor common room, staring into space.

"What is there to do?" James brought a hand to Lily's shoulder. "Are you okay? You don't look too great, either..." He smiled warmly.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, just look at that girl!" Lily said.

Nadia sighed. "Lily is most positively NOT fine. It wasn't only Lara that didn't eat a thing since yesterday, Lily stayed with Lara the entire time she has been like that. Even during meal time. Plus she stayed up all night trying to coax Lara-"

"Ugh, whatever! I'm okay! I ate that slice of bread you got me! I slept this morning! Whatever! She's my friend, and I have to do something about it!" Lily moaned.

James smiled adoringly. "Oh, Lily, you are an angel!" She immediately slapped him.

"Some angel..." muttered Remus. "Anyway, Sirius has been basically the same as Lara..." He motioned towards Sirius, who was also staring into space. "But he did eat, although really little. Only two platefuls of breakfast today..."

Alice gasped. "Oh, Merlin! There must be something seriously wrong with him if he only ate that little!"

"You are so right, Alice," nodded Remus.

"We have to do SOMETHING!" yelled Lily.

James suggested, "Uh, how about a game or something? To perk them up? And who knows if they might feel closer or something while playing?"

Lily looked at James with wonder. "James, you are a genius. How does hide and seek sound like?"

Remus shrugged. "Sure, why not? We can always go to the Room of Requirement..."

"I'm so going!" Alice said enthusiastically, giving Remus a huge hug.

Nadia sighed. "Well I guess it sounds okay...anything for Lara, you know?" She started to look around for Death.

"Okay! I'll go tell Lara, okay? You guys convince Sirius. I think it'll be better if I talk to Lara alone."

Lily walked over the Lara and pulled up a chair next to her as the others surrounded Sirius.

"Hey, Lara? You okay?" Lily asked quietly.

Lara nodded.

"Lara, how does hide and seek sound like? Fun, eh?"

Lara nodded.

"Great! You'll play?" Lily said brightly.

Lara shook her head. "Y'all go."

Lily's face fell. "Lara~! Come on, let's play! It'll be so much fun! With you and me and Remus and Sir—uh, James and..." She sighed as Lara's eyes reddened with tears.

"Lily?"

"Hm?"

"Lily?"

"Yes, Lara, my best friend?"

"Does he—does he really care about me that much, Lily? Lily, you're smart. You should know... Does he really love me that much?" Lara's eyes briefly met Lily's before staring off into space again.

Lily nodded.

Lara managed a smile. "I really hope so."

Lily smiled. "Now, about that hide-and-seek..."

"I'll play," said Lara with a grin.

* * *

"One, two, three, four, five..." Remus chanted, his eyes tightly shut as his friends scurried through the room to find a place to hide.

Lily dove behind the couch, and noticing this, James followed. What resulted was a whispered argument between the two that caused James to be kicked out from behind the couch.

Lara peered around, and finding no where else, slipped into a broom closet, leaving the door open just a crack.

Alice promptly lay flat on the floor with her arms and legs sprawled out.

Nadia grabbed Death before crawling under the kitchen table to be hidden by the long, draping tablecloth.

Sirius, who had been finally convinced to play, unenthusiastically walked into a closet as Remus yelled, "Ready or not, here I come!"

"James!" he yelled with a laugh. "Who do you think you are? Alice? Why are you sitting there right in front of me?" He motioned from Alice, who was lying on the floor with her eyes closed, to James, who had been kicked out from behind the couch and was sitting on the rug.

"My dear, sweet Lily kicked me out from behind the couch!" he said happily, before realizing that he had given away Lily's hiding spot.

Lily emerged and shrieked, "POTTER! You gave away my spot! Let's see if I ever talk to you again!"

"Aw, Lily! I love you!" James said, giving her a hug. Lily's face turned pink, but she didn't resist his embrace.

Lara jumped as a dark figure entered the closet where she was hiding amongst the various mops and brooms and robes.

"Lara?" It was Sirius' voice.

She didn't know she should answer, so she just emerged from the back of the closet until she could see Sirius in the darkness.

"Sorry. I didn't know you were hiding here. You're probably uncomfortable with me here, so I'll go, okay?" whispered Sirius, a sad smile crossing his face.

He was just about to leave when Lara whispered hoarsely, "Wait! Sirius—I..."

Sirius turned.

Tears welling up in her eyes, she said, "Sirius, I—I just wanted to say...it's just that-"

Sirius had placed a finger on her lips. Lara blinked confusedly for a few moments.

"Shh... Me first, okay?" Sirius brought his hand back to his side. "Lara, I'm really sorry. I didn't realize how much it would hurt you when I said that. I didn't mean it like that... I'm so sorry that I couldn't even know how you felt."

Lara shook her head. "No... I should have known... that you..." Her voice trailed off.

Sirius smiled and brought himself closer and closer to Lara. She closed her eyes gently...

"Where's Nadia and Sirius and Lara?" asked Remus.

James laughed. "Wanna ask Death?" With a wink to Lily, he started making small cat noises, soon echoed by Death's from under the table.

Lily giggled. "There they are!"

An annoyed Nadia emerged from under the table. "JAMES!" she roared. "You cheater!"

James laughed. "Chill, chill! We still gotta find those two arguing love birds."

Nadia shrugged. "I dunno where they are...did you check the hallway?"

"I don't think either of them would be enthusiastic enough to hide themselves there..." answered Remus.

"Okay, then, the closet?" Nadia suggested, pointing at the small broom closet.

Remus snapped. "Aha! One of them must be there!" He ran over and burst the door open. "Huh? Weren't you two fighting?"

At these words, the others rushed over to find Lara and Sirius stepping out of the closet holding hands with a broad smile on their lips.

"Ooh, you found us," commented Lara with a giggle.

James raised an eyebrow. "What happened in there? Why are you two all...lovey dovey again?"

Sirius jabbed James. "That's for me to know—not you."

And so everyone was happy. We think. We hope. ;)

_Quick last note: Well, alas, the time has come. This story is coming to an end. This is the second-to-last chapter. Thank you to all our faithful reviewers, you totally mean the world to us. NExt chapter is the epilogue, the last chapter. We honestly hoped you enjoyed your time with us ;D _

_Ps. Mimiona's note: Do any of you totally love AVPM? Cause I totally do. It is like the world to me. _


	25. Chapter 25: Epilogue

**Epilogue**

_**Blossom's Disclaimer: **__Except for what belongs to Rowling, EVERYTHING! belongs to us!_

_**Ekaterina's Disclaimer:**__ As much as we may wish to own Harry Potter, it will only come true in some parallel universe. Sadly, until now, that universe has not notified us yet. YET! _

_**Blossom's note:**__ Hey folks! This is the last chapter for Picnic Story! I thank you guys for reading it 'til the end and for all of your awesome reviews, too. It means the world to us: that people read our stories and laugh while doing so. Thank you very much! And also, this is our first story, but it won't be our last, so remember to check out our next story-we have plans. _

_With lots of love, Blossom~_

_**Amber's Disclaimer and note**__: Well, people, this is the end of Picnic Story. What's that? I'm crying? No, it must be the onions I was chopping. Well, thank you to all those people out there who took time out of their not-so-busy schedule (just kidding) to read this little story that we worked so hard to make. WE really appreciate your support!_

_**Ekaterina's Note: **__So. This is our laaaast and final chapter for Picnic Story. It's been a long time and I still remember how we started one Friday afternoon then decided to meet up the very next day out of excitement. Ah, good time good times. We really appreciate you guys reading this, it means more than one could imagine to us. We also appreciate the reviewers, every time we got a review, it was like someone had given us a priceless present. So, I would like to say thank you all so so so so very much and I hope you'll read our other stories as well~ we have a plan for a new one :) Much love!_

**And so... 8 years later~ (I believe that makes them about 25 years old)**

It was beautiful. The wedding could not be normal, but that didn't change the fact that it was beautiful. It took place at the Great Hall in Hogwarts, as Dumbledore had most kindly allowed it to happen. Both Lara and Sirius agreed that it was the most meaningful place for them. The hall was adorned with roses of white, pink, and violet, matching the color of Lara's eyes perfectly. There were dancing candles floating throughout the air, giving the hall an enchanted look. The center aisle was scattered with rose petals of various colors; enchanted instruments made up a string quartet that played one sweet piece after another. There were not many guests-just closest friends and some parents.

Lara and Sirius stood at the end of the hall, facing Remus, who was dressed in his indigo dress robes in front of a marble podium. Lara wore a modern-style wedding dress that came just above her knees. Intricately laced with rainbows of thread, it formed flowers and birds that waltzed magically across the white dress. She wore a small tiara on her curled hair and her feet were slipped into glass slippers. Sirius was dressed better than ever-in a tuxedo.

"So... I guess you guys want the shortened version?" Remus asked cautiously.  
"Hell yeah!" exclaimed Sirius.  
"Meh, whatever means that Padfoot's mine!" Lara responded cheerfully.  
"Alright then! You guys are getting married, lots of responsibility, try not to murder each other, live happily, er... and I guess you guys have the rings?"  
"Oh, we exchanged them while you were talking," said Lara happily.

"... I see... Now that Lara and Sirius have given themselves to each other by solemn vows, with the joining of hands and the giving and receiving of a ring-"

Remus looked up to see Lara staring blankly at him. .

"Moony!" hissed Sirius, "the shortened one!"

"Huh?" Remus laughed and tossed away the parchment from which he had been reading from. "In short, I now pronounce you husband and wife!"

There was a loud applause from the guests, but Sirius didn't seem to be satisfied. Looking at Remus, he furiously mouthed something to him.

"What?" Remus said, scratching his head confusedly, then bursting into laughter. "You may now kiss the bride!" he finally announced.

Lily clapped and James cat-called as Sirius and Lara proceeded to give a rather elongated public show of affection.

Alice beamed at Remus, then stepping up next to him, held a small branch of mistletoe over his his head.

"Alice, how do you always manage to find mistletoe when it's not even winter?" Remus asked incredulously.  
She winked and put her finger to her lips, "Sorry, it's a secret!"

Lily giggled at the couple. "I'll tell you what," she said to Remus, "she grows them in her backyard!"

Remus raised an eyebrow. "Well, Alice, darling, we'll have to go there one day," he said, smiling. "And stop under every branch there is! But for now-"

And the two were also locked in a kiss.

Nadia watched with a pleased smile on her lips. She was seated with Death and two other cats in her lap. She and Adrian had never met after leaving Hogwarts; plus she had discovered that she really wasn't one for the romance. But Death had found its partner-now she had two kittens to care for, too: Midnight and Black-Star.

* * *

"Lara! You're married now!" said Lily in a half-awed and half-jealous voice.

Lara poked Lily. "Why? Do you wish you were married to James?" she teased, and Lily grew very flushed.

"Lara! No, it's Mrs. Black!" Nadia came over, cuddling Midnight.

Lara gasped. "Oh, no! No Mrs. Black for me! I'll be a Miss Lara forever, thank you very much!" she declared indignantly.

"Really?" asked Alice, dancing over—she still hadn't gotten over that habit.

Lara laughed. "Anyway, it doesn't matter to you guys. I'll always be Lara for you, my friends!"

"Now it's time for the bouquet toss!" called Remus over the podium, interrupting the conversation.

"Ooh! The bouquet toss!" squealed Alice. "I wanna catch it!"

Lara giggled. "You know, the one the catches it is supposed to be the next one to marry. I wonder who that'll be!" She looked around.

Nadia smirked. "Not me, for sure," she commented.

"Well, I wonder who will catch the garter..." said Lily thoughtfully.

"I dunno," said Lara, raising an eyebrow. "But whoever catches it is supposed to marry the girl who catches the bouquet."

"Alice," said Nadia, poking her friend, "I bet you want Remus to catch that garter."

Alice shook her head indignantly. "I don't care about that! I just wanna try catching the bouquet... it looked like fun!"

"Ladies!" called Remus again. "Come, or the groom is gonna toss the bouquet to the single men!"

"Oh, no!" said Alice, rushing over to where the Marauders were waiting. Laughing, Lily, Lara, and Nadia followed.

* * *

The group of old friends laughed and chattered as Lara prepared to throw her bouquet. She was standing at the end of the hall with her friends Lily, Alice, and Nadia (who had finally joined after five minutes of coaxing) behind her. Alice was eagerly awaiting the bouquet, Nadia was eagerly awaiting for the toss to be completed and done so she could go back to her kittens. Lily was standing there with a pleased smile on her lips, not particularly wanting or not wanting the bouquet.

"One, two...three!"

On the count, Lara threw the bouquet of roses across her shoulder.

It flew over and landed right into the arms of a surprised Lily, who burst into a fit of giggles. "Me?" Pleased, she brought the flowers to her nose.

"Oooh, Lily! You're getting married next~!" teased Remus, who was comforting Alice for not getting the bouquet.

Lily smiled, a little pink in the cheeks. "Married? Pshaw~"

Nadia looked happily at Lily and said, "Well, Lily, remember to invite me and Death, ok? And Alice, you can catch her bouquet then!" She walked back to her waiting pets and proceeded to cuddle them.

Alice, who was now happy with the thought of catching Lily's bouquet, waltzed over and poked Lily. "Well, my to-be-bride! Remember to throw yours to me!"

Lily laughed, but nodded.

* * *

This time it was Sirius' turn. He held Lara's garter in his hand, and with a laugh, threw it to the awaiting James, Remus, and two fathers (who had been coaxed into joining because there were only two people.)

Everyone thought Remus would catch it. It _did_ fly in his direction. But it was James who yelled aloud.

"I got it!" he announced victoriously.

Remus rubbed his knee, getting up from the floor. "Yeah, and knocked me over in the process!"

There was a chorus of snickers as he held it triumphantly in his hands.

Lily turned to him, beaming, "Oh, did you now?"

"Well, yes, yes I did..." he said proudly.

"Do you know what that means?" she asked playfully.

"Er... that we can go and have a snog by the lake?" he asked hopefully.

"Well, other than that?"

"Hmmm," he pretended to think. Then, with a playful grin he pulled out a balloon from behind his back and handed it to Lily.

"Huh? What's this?" she asked in confusion.

POP! Lily screamed as it popped in her hands, but it turned to a gasp as a small silver ring inset with a sapphire floated down onto her finger.

"Oh..." she breathed.

"Oh?" asked James. He didn't get time to elaborate as she gave him a tight hug and all his friends were laughing and congratulating them.

_It is not right to say that they lived happily ever after, but we can say that they did til death did them part_

_Thank you so, so, SO much to every single person who reviewed to this. If I could give each and everyone of you a cookie, I would. However, I can't, so you'll just have to imagine it ;) Thank you to all who stuck through our delerious writing 'till the end, It totally makes us happy to see how many people viewed our stories and profile. We also hava a fictionpress account, for all of those of you who care, our username is Elven. Roses (don't ask about our strange names :P) We love you all, and keep in mind to keep recommending fanfics to us ;) we love fanfictions :) We hope you enjoyed our insane writing. Thank you again to all those who reviewed, and we'll see you soon in Hogwarts!_


End file.
